Cyclone Alfred landfall delayed

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A closer look at where tropical Cyclone Alfred is tracking now as it heads towards the Queensland south coast

Transcript

00:00The latest Alfred track map from the Bureau of Meteorology was issued for 11 a.m. Queensland

00:08time, 12 p.m. New South Wales time.

00:11New update?

00:12Well, new delay.

00:13We're now likely to see it crossing the coast as a Category 2 system, but not until the

00:18early hours of Saturday morning.

00:20Still, we've got the same cyclone warnings in place from Double Island Point down to

00:25Grafton in New South Wales, though it doesn't include that city.

00:29You will see the winds really along the east coast extending quite a good ways to the south

00:36of the system.

00:37Now, we do have some warnings that have changed as well.

00:40The coastal hazards for parts of Queensland and New South Wales.

00:43Some areas now cancel.

00:46The area north from the coast, around about Gympie, up to the top of Garry, Fraser Island,

00:52now no longer under warnings.

00:54Same, same from the area just south of Nambucca Heads to just south of Foster, no longer under

00:59severe weather warnings for abnormally high tides and for some dangerous damaging surf

01:05that could cause coastal erosion.

01:07But those warnings remain in place right across that region, where we've also got warnings

01:12for damaging to destructive winds and for heavy to intense rainfall.

01:18That's likely to continue.

01:19The reason the ocean related warnings or the coastal warnings have been eased is because

01:23the system is now close enough to the coast that it's not creating those most dangerous

01:28swells.

01:29So hazardous surf still continues all the way up through the Garry coast and all the

01:34way down at the moment, potentially all the way down to Eden and tomorrow that retracts

01:38back towards the Sydney coast, but still very dangerous seas out there.

01:42We are seeing the system moving towards the coast, but at a much slower rate, and that

01:47means that even for those areas that are in the very western fringe of the system and

01:54are already experiencing some dangerous weather, it means it's going to last for longer.

01:58Damaging winds have been recorded, gusts pushing towards 100 kilometres an hour.

02:03Just for Moreton Cape this morning, 95 kilometre an hour gusts measured at Cape Byron.

02:09Heavy rainfall has been around too, we've seen hundreds of millimetres in parts of New

02:13South Wales, 180 millimetres plus in southern Queensland.

02:16Some minor flooding already this morning.

02:19As the day progresses, we're likely to see conditions rapidly deteriorating, particularly

02:24as we get into tonight for that part of the coast around Alfred.

02:27Now, the delay and any subsequent delays will just mean longer periods with those very windy,

02:32very wet conditions and that big surf damaging the coastline.

02:36In the coming days, we will see the system make a crossing, but it will be particularly

02:41slow moving as it does.

02:43It will weaken relatively quickly over the course of perhaps 10 hours after making first

02:48crossing over Moreton Island, but it will stay in the vicinity of Brisbane at this stage

02:53for quite some time.

02:54That means that we could see that coastal inundation from an elevated storm tide continuing

03:01for hours and likely including the high tide as well.

03:05Then once that system slips to the south and through New South Wales into Victoria, the

03:10rainfall is going to continue for some in the east coast of Queensland and northern

03:14New South Wales.

03:16That will slow the recession of any waters.

03:18We are expecting flooding, likely major flooding for some, hundreds of millimetres in a six-hour

03:25period potentially and certainly hundreds of millimetres day on day for several days

03:30for this region.

03:31So, flooding is a major concern.

03:33Flood watches remain current for all of the rivers in southeastern Queensland and northeastern

03:37New South Wales.

03:38It's just a little bit of a delay in what's going to be a very dangerous few days.

Category

Transcript

Recommended