Damage is shown in this video as Ex-Cyclone Alfred hits the Gold Coast this weekend.
Video / Lulu Wood
Former tropical cyclone Alfred is bringing damaging rain and wind to a 400km stretch of coastline straddling the state border of Queensland and New South Wales.
The cyclone was downgraded this morning to a tropical low but dangers remain, residents and visitors having been warned.
Christchurch pensioner Jill Keats is stuck on the Gold Coast after her Jetstar flight was cancelled and has been sheltering in a Palm Beach hotel.
A Kiwi pensioner trapped on the Gold Coast as Cyclone Alfred thrashed Australia’s eastern coast overnight has described the experience as “noisy” and disruptive, but no comparison to natural events she’s lived through on this side of the Tasman.
Many people at her hotel in Palm Beach, 15kmsouth of Surfers Paradise, were scared ahead of the category 2 cyclone’s arrival, Jill Keats said.
“I can’t say it’s been terrifying. I lived through the Wahine storm [Cyclone Giselle] and the earthquakes … after living through the quakes this is a walk in the park,” the Christchurch woman said.
“People here know it’s coming, and have some idea of [its trajectory]. With the quakes, they just come out of nowhere. I’d rather have this than an earthquake any day.”
Christchurch woman Jill Keats is trapped in Palm Beach during the Cyclone Alfred weather event that is affecting a large area of eastern coastal Australia.
The cyclone was downgraded this morning to a tropical low as it approached land – as of 10am (NZT) it was 65km northeast of Brisbane and 49km southeast of Maroochydore.
Officials warned the risk to life from high winds and heavy rain remained, although Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the chance of storm tide inundation had passed.
Keats, who was inadvertently also among those first on the scene after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, helping save wounded worshippers, was this morning safe on the second floor of the three-storey Palm Beach Hotel.
Residents had earlier been moved from the top floor because the roof was starting to sag from the wind and rain, she said.
“The receptionist has been wonderful. She’s stayed here with us. We’ve got a vending machine and can make tea and coffee, but I’m dying for some toast with tomatoes.
“The supermarkets closed yesterday, but there was nothing left anyway. Not a stick of bread or a piece of fruit.”
The 72-year-old, stranded after her Jetstar flight home booked for Thursday was cancelled, had instead bought soup and frozen meals and had one meal left, she said.
“But it doesn’t look very appetising.”
Empty supermarket shelves on the Gold Coast on Thursday, ahead of Cyclone Alfred's expected arrival.
Her planned three-day visit was to support a family member facing a health challenge, but with no travel insurance, she’d needed family help to pay for extra accommodation and food costs until her rebooked flight on Monday.
This morning it was still “windy and rainy” and she feared they could lose power as others within a block had.
“Every so often we get a wind gust that rattles the building, and you think, ‘is this when we lose our power?’”
Large waves were seen at Southport on the Gold Coast, Queensland, on Tuesday ahead of the wild weather arriving.
Keats has been a regular visitor to the Gold Coast for more than 25 years and had “never seen [weather] like this before”.
She had a view of the beach from her room and had watched sightseers risking their lives.
“Some of them are families taking their kids. Bloody idiots.”
A damaged yacht swept away by the waves rests at Point Danger on the southern end of the Gold Coast on Friday. Photo / AFP
On the Gold Coast, several people have been rescued from the beaches despite them being closed by officials, AFP reported.
“[It’s] just stupidity, people are trying to get on the beach – trying a cheap thrill ... they’re putting themselves in danger,” Mermaid Beach Surf Life Saving Club president Paul Mann told the ABC.
No deaths have been reported but one man was missing after his four-wheel-drive vehicle was swept from a bridge into fast-running river water south of the cyclone, police said.
Four million people are in the cyclone’s firing line along a 400km stretch of coastline straddling the state border of Queensland and New South Wales.
