A rare tropical cyclone veered toward Australia’s heavily populated eastern coast on Wednesday, prompting emergency warnings, closing hundreds of schools, and threatening to flood thousands of houses.
Tropical cyclone forecasters predicted that Alfred will strike near Brisbane on Friday morning, becoming the region’s first typhoon in more than 50 years.
Flooding rains, destructive winds, and strong waves were forecast to pummel a heavily populated 300-kilometre (186-mile) stretch of coastline that connects Queensland and New South Wales.
According to municipal council estimates, nearly 20,000 properties in Brisbane are at risk of flooding.
As thrill-seeking surfers paddled out to capture five-metre (16-foot) swells caused by the storm, others filled sandbags or prepared to retreat to higher ground.
More than 700 schools across Queensland and the flood-prone northern rivers region of New South Wales will close from Thursday onwards, education department officials said.
Major airlines Qantas and Virgin have cancelled a string of flights, while the Gold Coast’s international airport will shut down completely on Wednesday afternoon.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Tropical Cyclone Alfred was likely to hit land in the early hours of Friday morning.
The storm front made “an abrupt U-turn” towards the mainland after earlier forecasts showed it would peter out at sea, the weather bureau said.
It would bring “destructive wind gusts” of up to 155 kilometres (96 miles) per hour in some places, the bureau added.
There was a chance it would make landfall at high tide, said forecasters, creating a “dangerous storm tide” with powerful waves.
While cyclones are common in the warm tropical areas along Australia’s northern coast, they are uncommon in colder regions further south.
Tropical cyclone According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Alfred will be the first to make landfall in that portion of Australia since 1974.
Researchers have repeatedly cautioned that climate change increases the likelihood of natural disasters including bushfires, floods, and cyclones.
