Living in subtropical South East Queensland, you get used to major weather events like heavy rain, flooding, and strong winds happening on a semi-regular basis.
So when you hear that a cyclone’s formed off the coast some distance away almost two weeks ago – at first you’d be inclined to dismiss the severity of it because few cyclones make it this far south.
Well… we’re in for a big one this week with Tropical Cyclone Alfred wandering down the coast for a while, but now making a cruel sharp westward turn straight for us!
The last major cyclone to make landfall around South East Queensland was around 50 years ago, so naturally the population here isn’t used to it. Mild panic buying of water, batteries, even toilet paper (bringing back memories of COVID…) has set in, but otherwise things are orderly at the moment.
We’ve prepped my place a number of days prior – while we’re not at risk of direct flooding we are on a sloping plot so we put in some improved drainage and got some sandbags which has been fortuitous because apparently sandbag queues have gotten quite long over the last 48 hours and some places can’t keep up with demand.
Neighbours opposite us have actually completely cut down some ~4-storey-tall trees down, probably due to the high risk of flattening nearby houses and electricity infrastructure – which goes to show how seriously this is being taken.
I personally haven’t experienced a cyclone myself, so fingers crossed we get to the other side unscathed!
Stay safe everyone!