By. Australian News Source
Tropical Cyclone Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low earlier on Saturday morning, but warnings remain in place for severe rain and flooding. Landfall is now expected in north of Brisbane, the Gold Coast will be hit with heavy rainfalls today. About 300,000 homes across northern NSW and Southeast Queensland remain without power – 250,000 of which are in Queensland whilst In NSW it’s 42,600. However present situation around 340,000 properties are now without power across northern NSW and Southeast Queensland.
In Queensland, about 300,000 properties are experiencing outages, including 130,000 on the Gold Coast, 48,000 in Brisbane and 48,000 in the Redland Bay area. Pumping stations at Alexandra Hills and Mount Cotton had earlier lost power, which was affecting water supplier Seqwater’s ability to pump treated water into the area, but crews have managed to get a generator working at pumping stations south of Brisbane.
In an update at around 12pm Queensland time, Seqwater said an earlier notice to conserve water had now been lifted. Meanwhile, Essential Energy, the distributor in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW said there were just over 42,600 homes and businesses without power in communities between Tweed Heads and Grafton, as of 11am.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli earlier described the power outages across the state’s south-east as the worst in a decade.
“The work needed to reconnect that is significant … Queenslanders need to know that right now there are damage assessments being done and already crews are being mobilised to get that done.”
There are also widespread mobile phone outages, with Telstra reporting service disruptions right across the regions affected by Alfred.
More warnings issued for the Northern Rivers as towns begin to flood Evacuation orders were issued for low-lying areas on Friday, with residents in the east told to evacuate on Saturday (07) morning. Parts of Mullumbimby to the south and east of Fern are now experiencing moderate flooding, with intense rainfall forecast across the weekend.
Condong, South Murwillumbah, Casino, Kyogle, Lismore and surrounding areas are also subject to watch and act warnings due to flooding.