<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>339633</docID> <postdate>2025-03-05 16:02:18</postdate> <headline>‘Leave now’: high-risk locals warned as cyclone looms</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-339634" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250304143721664363-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Properties and coastlines are being sandbagged in preparation for gales and surging seas. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Savannah Meacham</strong> and<strong> <b>Laine Clark</b></strong>Â in Brisbane</span></p> <p><strong>Time is running out for millions of people in built-up coastal areas trying to prepare for a tropical cyclone bringing destructive winds and flooding.</strong></p> <p>Southeast Queensland is bunkering down, with schools, public transport and major roads to close as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches.</p> <p>The category two system is expected to make landfall late on Thursday or early Friday between Queensland's Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.</p> <p>The first cyclone to hit the state's southeast since 1974, Alfred will trigger heavy rain, flash flooding, destructive winds and storm surges with wild weather expected from Wednesday.</p> <p>People have begun fleeing their homes with about 70 evacuations from South Stradbroke Island, where the eye of the cyclone is set to loom early on Friday.</p> <p>Evacuation centres are opening across the region but residents have been urged to stay with family or friends if they can.</p> <p>Hundreds of emergency services are doorknocking high-risk areas, warning residents to leave, with the cyclone's arrival likely to coincide with a Friday morning high tide.</p> <p>About 20,000 properties are expected to be impacted by flooding in the Brisbane area, prompting the warning for locals to consider relocating.</p> <p>"We don't go forcibly drag people out of their homes ... police will go around and say to people 'you need to leave your home now'," Acting Commissioner Shane Chelepy said.</p> <p>"Those people who don't leave their homes ... that puts you, your family and us in a really dangerous situation."</p> <p>Aged care facilities in low-lying areas are being evacuated on Wednesday and authorities are working to accommodate the region's homeless.</p> <p>The federal government has initiated defence force assistance with heavy-lift helicopters pre-positioned in Bundaberg and Coffs Harbour.</p> <p>"This is a rare event to have a tropical cyclone in an area that is not classified as part of the tropics," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in Brisbane on Wednesday.</p> <p>Hundreds of schools spanning the Sunshine Coast to northern NSW will close on Thursday and Friday.</p> <p>Public transport will cease late on Wednesday night across the region with major bridges to close when wind gusts reach 90km/h.</p> <p>Flood releases are likely at Queensland's Somerset and Wivenhoe dams in the next two days, with several ungated dams already spilling.</p> <p>Qantas on Wednesday cancelled a number of flights, Carnival Luminosa's three-day cruise was called off and Greyhound bus services from Brisbane axed.</p> <p>The cyclone's impact is also set to be felt interstate, with the warning zone spanning Double Island Point, Queensland to Grafton, NSW.</p> <p>More than 100 schools have closed in the Northern Rivers region, with locals urged not to panic-buy.</p> <p>"Thursday is the day to act because Thursday evening and Friday morning we're expecting the storm to approach and cross into NSW," NSW Premier Chris Minns told ABC News.</p> <p>Farmers from the Tweed and Northern Rivers down to the Mid North Coast have been urged to prepare for damaging winds, high tides and heavy rainfall.</p> <p>Emergency alerts were issued across the southeast on Wednesday afternoon after "chaos" at sandbagging sites as many people made last-minute preparations.</p> <p>The federal government promised the delivery of 250,000 extra sandbags on Wednesday to keep up with demand after many queued for hours.</p> </body>