Australian homes lose power and people told to evacuate as cyclone approaches

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power and people were ordered to evacuate their flood-prone homes as part of the Australian east coast was lashed by wind and rain ahead of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred was forecast to cross the coast of Queensland state north of Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, early on Saturday, Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy said.

“It‘s important to note that the exact track is still uncertain,” Mr Collopy told reporters in Brisbane.

Alfred was moving west with sustained winds near the centre of 95 kph (59 mph) and gusting to 130 kph (81 mph).

But the storm was expected to weaken as it approached Brisbane, Mr Collopy said.

“This will mean that destructive winds are unlikely for Brisbane itself, but damaging wind gusts to 120 kph (80 mph) are expected and they will develop quickly as the system approaches,” Collopy said.

Two people narrowly escaped a large tree falling on their home in the Currumbin Valley on Thursday night.

The couple were lying only inches from where the tree came to rest in their bedroom, police said.

“Thankfully, both patients sustained only minor injuries,” Queensland Ambulance Service said in a statement.

In Queensland, 46,000 homes and businesses had lost power due to falling trees, mostly in Gold Coast, officials said.

In flood-prone northern New South Wales, 43,000 premises had lost power by early Friday, but electricity was restored to 6,500 of those by afternoon, officials said.

State Emergency Service acting chief superintendent Stuart Fisher said 19,000 people had been ordered to evacuate their New South Wales homes by noon or risk being trapped by floodwater.

Cyclones are common in Queensland’s tropical north but are rare in the state’s temperate and densely populated south-east corner that borders New South Wales state.

The Sunshine Coast region north of Brisbane and the city of Gold Coast to the south are tourist destinations renowned for their extensive and picturesque white sandy beaches.

But many of those beaches have eroded away over days by large waves and unusually high tides generated by Alfred.

Alfred is expected to become the first cyclone to cross the coast in the Brisbane region since Cyclone Zoe hit Gold Coast in 1974 and brought widespread flooding.

The cyclone has been tracking south from the tropics for weeks.

Lithuanian rower Aurimas Mockus, 44, was rowing solo 7,500 miles from San Diego, California, to Brisbane when he became stranded in treacherous conditions generated by Alfred in the Coral Sea last week.

An Australian warship rescued him on Monday, 460 miles east of the Queensland coastal city of Mackay and landed him in Sydney where he was reunited with his wife, Sonata Mockuviene.

A relieved Mr Mockus told reporters in Sydney he thought he was going to die when he activated his emergency beacon on February 28 and waited three days to be rescued.

“My boat was sinking. And old navigation, old stuff is going off. I just have VHF radio. I have broken antennas about,” Mr Mockus told reporters, describing equipment failure.

“I have a lot of problems in my body, and then I think if I lost my mind, if I lost my belief, what I can fight for my life (with)?” he added.