Skying in center. This is Paul Murray Live. Get I mate, and welcome to Redcliffe, which is to the north of Brisbane. We are on the ground as tropical cyclone our Fred is beginning to start to show what the next couple of days is going to be like in southeast Queensland and in northern New South Wales. In a moment I'll be joined by reporters all over this region with the very latest information for people who are in the area and obviously what you need to know around the rest
of the country. Now, let me give you an idea of what today has been like in and around Brisbane. Frankly, it's been dare I say, a little bit like Melbourne's so the four seasons in one day it was blue skies. This morning it was pretty warm. It's been humid, very still at times, and then there would be big bursts of wind and then rain. That here in Redcliffe has been the story of the past couple of hours. Let me try to give you an idea of where we
are and where tropical Cyclone Alfred is right now. Put simply two hundred and fifty clicks that way out to sea is where Alfred is currently moving only at a speed of about three kilometers an hour. So do your sums and then you can start to work out about exactly when the moment is going to be that people have been planning for and many are fearing. Now. The expectation was that we will be dealing with something at
the early part of Friday morning. That moved to Friday afternoon, and at this stage the latest information from the Bureau of Meteorology is that the worst of it will be in full force by the very early hours of Saturday morning. Now we're going to be here through the whole thing to give you the information. And also Queensland's been so kind to me, so kind to us, so it's time to be here with them. The preparations that have been taking place all day are honestly pretty amazing to see.
Now there's a couple of myths that I want to deal with just before stuff starts to ramp up over the next couple of days. There is food in Brisbane. I was told on our way up here that we had to bring food. We had to bring bottles of water. Know there is plenty of it. The panic buying that may will have happened in coals and woolies. Yes, that
is a thing. However, if you want to find a bottle of water, there's a service station almost every few hundred meters, so there's plenty of ways to keep yourself going. But also the spirit of Queensland. Is this something we'll talk about, no doubt on the other side of this as well as another mud army will form to clean whatever is going to be the issues here of this
tropical cyclone. But today I have the opportunity to go and see what with my own eyes what a lot of us have been seeing for the past couple of days, and that's long patient queues of people trying to find sandbags, trying to find sandbags to make sure that when the waters start to move, and remember storm surges are suggesting that we could be up over one point two meters,
particularly down around the Gold Coast right now. Is that people want to make sure that the war, when it inevitably starts moving, doesn't go underneath the door into the garage all of the little issues. And that's why people have been lining up for days literally hundreds of thousands of sandbags. Now, this operation is one that I've got to say is one of the most orderly I've ever seen. Now today most of the schools were shut in Southeast Queensland.
Today many people adhered the advice to work from home. But this was our experience of being able to see people getting ready for what's going to be a big couple of days. We don't know what's coming, but what's your feeling and preparedness for it.
I think we're well prepared, Like everyone's still anxious to see how it.
Is, and the cyclone slowed down a bit, so I think we're ready.
So vincent. We know that you're here to help dad and there's a cyclone coming, But how good is getting today and tomorrow off school?
Very well?
I've seen plenty of things come and go in this part of the world. How are you feeling ahead of this one? Be worried about this?
Back in twenty twenty had that rain event and I got watered downstairs in a high set. So yeah, so I want to make sure it's all seeing bagged up today.
And I hope you don't mind me asking. But after going through those experiences, are you insured not insured? Is it hard? I mean, what's it like to try to stay on top of that?
Yeah, it's always gone up the premium. So yeah, so they got chess. So it's not much you can do.
What's your message to everyone about the next couple of days, how to get through it?
Yeah, just stay with your family, button down and batton down and we'll get through it.
We're Queenslanders. Sandbags sandbags sandbags. There have been more than four hundred thousand that have been taken up by the good people of Southeast Queensland. Now, what is diff about the way they do it in Brisbane is that that is the responsibility of the local council. Brisbane City Council, of course, represents an entire metropolitan area and in the past, at twenty four hours they have already handed out more sandbags than they did in the significant floods of teen
years ago. What is also incredible here is that you've got people that are picking them up not just for their own family, but for their neighbors as well. How's the preparation going, Yeah, not too bad.
We're not too bad off on ourselves, but our neighbors that are probably a little bit more precarious. So we're just getting some sandbags for her today.
Oh fantastic, that's very cool. So because she can't get down here.
Yeah, it was her garage flood, so she's already got a car in there and she can't get it out obviously. So we're able to help so well. She helps us at times with our dog, so that's cool. And speaking of help, this is the best help ever, right? Can I say hi to you on the TV? How many sandbags have you filled today?
This is still my first time. We know people are Queensland tough, but what do you want to say to anyone who's watching the telly and just maybe a little nervous about the next couple of days.
They just do what you've got to do around house, tie everything down that's loose and just keep safe and making sure everything squared away.
And you're already this endbangging site was not meant to be open today, but because of the delay of Alfred actually crossing the coast, they've been able to get a few hours in. You know, mate, how are you?
So?
Are very good?
It? Wait now?
So far.
As soon as we landed in Brisbane, we put a message up on our show's Facebook page which was if you're in Brisbane, we want to see how you are preparing. Dave is a loyal Paul Murray Live fan, Thank you, sir, pleasure, and we've got in his backyard right now. Basically, if it moves, if it could fly, the straps are down. Well done, that's it, Thanks Paul.
Yeah, we've done the best we can. Next is the garbage brings everything downside of the house or strap them down with tape and done the windows a little bit. But honestly, I've had sky and nears on and I've had the app on the bomb open on the other screens, so trying to be aware of it but not too aware of it.
Thank you Dave's beautiful wife and family as well for letting us into their house. But simply, people don't really know what is about to happen in the next couple of days. We know where the briefings are, we know where the expectations are. Of course, everyone's fingers crossed that this is something that will skirt mon't be as big a problem, and obviously that's what all of us hope for here, But the reality is that we don't know
exactly where this thing is going to hit. But I continue some of the early lashings are starting to be felt on the Gold Coast that's where Jonathan Lee is our reporter, and he is in Burly Heads right now. Mate, how are we well? The night before the storm.
Yeah, ominos, I suppose is the best way to describe it, Paul. It was a bluebird morning, stunning, people were out getting coffees, and then you have the rental rain at times and you think it's all on, it's happening.
You get the nervous energy and it stops.
And if you're going through that as a journalist and a media crew, you've got to pay respects to the locals and what.
They're going through at the moment.
They're understandably exceptionally nervous and in some cases scared, and for very good reason. We perhaps should start with the concerning news. Police have told me they've had dozens of reports of people swimming in the oceans, which they've responded to. At five o'clock this evening, a man was pulled from Palm Beach, Corumbin. Onlookers performed CPR and he has been taken to Gold Coast Hospital. I've also been told that two men were rescued from Sunshine Beach up on the
Sunny Coast. They were treading water for around fifty minutes before they were finally saved. So stay out of the water, don't go anywhere near it, and don't be treading on the sand dunes if they're looking broken and fractured.
Is pretty good advice, Paul.
If I can give you an idea of some of the weather conditions down here, well you can probably get the best gauge when you look at the ocean swell. Yesterday there was a maximum height of twelve point three meters on the Gold Coast. Today there was one recorded at sixteen point five meters. It appears that broke the boy, so they haven't been able to corroborate that. Yesterday in Brisbane it was ten point nine today sixteen point eight eight.
It looks like that is another record.
Also, two hundred and thirty four calls for assistance to the Sees Southeast Queens and we're looking at around two thousand calls in total to the Sees.
Top wind speed.
Today of around eighty kilometers an hour.
That's going to go up.
It looks like we could have wind gusts down here of one hundred and fifty kilometers now, the reason being we are south of the eye of the storm.
That's where things get nasty.
What happens out in the ocean and out off the coast is getting thrown at the Gold Coast tonight, we'll expect to have between two hundred and four hundred millimeters of rain tomorrow and the day after.
Forgive me for saying the obvious, but the idea that people are swimming in this stuff. I mean Mick Fanning, a world champion swimmer, swimmer surfer, he was out and about and yesterday he got bashed up by it. Obviously no one should be going there, but people are, I don't know, in the era of selfies, trying to trying to do these things. That's your own choice, but it's
the danger that you put the emergency services in. And of course any one person who's responding to that is not going to be responding to something else, and that, of course is just a waste of time and energy, isn't it.
Yeah, exactly right, it's not what the emergency services need. Paula was very fortunate today to also get down to my Woollombar just over the border on the Tweed River.
An incredible community, incredible spirit.
I know you've talked at length to them about them before and exactly what they went through in twenty twenty two and in twenty seventeen. In fact, last time, they were cut off in some cases for weeks at end. There's understandably been panic buying down. They're expected to get batted again. We talked to a few of the locals. This is what they very warmly had to say about their experience thus far.
We have been super busy, Like we sold out yesterday. You looked around the shop here and we did our best, but there was hardly a anything left.
People are nervous panic buying very much.
So yeah, we've had lots of people in buying up big.
What is twenty seventeen and twenty twenty two taught you?
It's better to be safe than sorry, for sure. I don't think anyone's silly for doing what they're doing because they've been burnt before. One of the girls that works here, she actually was stuck in her house in twenty twenty two.
I hope it turns away. Realistically, comes in, it's going to do a lot of damage.
What's the community around your feeling because it's been battered a few times.
Morel's pretty low.
It's like here we go again, you know what I mean.
Just they just got out of the last one. You know.
Morell was low for a couple of years and then the town picked itself up, and here we go again.
Doing our best to keep the kids calm and entertained. We're outside playing, making the most of the sunshine. At the moment.
Do you say the words cyclone? Do you talk about the wind? What's the strategy's appearing?
Look, we've talked about the wind and the floods and just sort of being as real as possible and being calm, being as prepared. They've seen us put everything up, they've seen us prepare evacuation kit, so yeah, they know what's happening.
Thank you, John, to get your restumete. You'll need it for the next couple of days along with everyone else there on the Goldie Strength and love to everyone there. Harry Clark is our Queensland reporter. He's a Victoria Point in Brisbane. What's the latest there, mate? Get a Paul well.
As John I was saying, it's all pretty unpredictable when this thing is actually going to start in Earnest. It's been coming and going, the rain and the wind all day, every time you think it's just about to set in, will it clears out again and blue sky is poking through.
But there's just a bit of a drizzle here now, when you would think by the time we're waking up the morning, there's going to be some pretty consistent rain, getting heavier and heavier as the hours go by and topical cipher and Alfred gets closer and closer to crossing the coast. The big concern here on these bayside suburbs, there's plenty of low cuntree, a lot of low lying
homes right up on the water's edge. So unlike the Gold Coast where you've got this beach front and then up onto the Glitter Strip, here there's actually waterfront homes right down on the shoreline and plenty of canal residential dwellings as well. So what they're calling the astronomical tide, that's the highest tide expected in a year. The Bureau expert forecasts are saying that the storm surge potentially from Tropical Cyclone Alfred, will be up to a meter and
a half above that astronomical astronomical high tide level. So if you combine that when it's crossing the Coast. Then there could very well be plenty of homes over on these bayside suburbs to get water coming into them. There's a lot of streets are right up on the water. But it's interesting. They think they're going to be right. They're up above you know, rock embatements and that kind of thing, but they're not taking any chances, even though
they think it's not going to come over it. In certain areas, they've got sand bags up and they've cleared the debris from their homes.
But it is just a wait and see.
There hasn't been a major cyclone here since the seventies and the fifties in the case of the Gold Coast, and a lot of people weren't alive then. So it's just going to be a matter of waiting and seeing what happens when this storm comes in early tomorrow Saturday morning.
Yeah, Harry, one of the reasons why we're here in Redcliffe is because well, firstly, I've got plenty of mates here and I love them very much, but also because it's an area where you know, once the rain starts to get in, the saw gets pretty sodden pretty quickly, and obviously there's a whole bunch of problems that start there. Let's be quite specific for people who live in Brisbane. Do we have any sense of areas of concern? Feel
free to name suburbs. I know it's a national show, but give us an idea for those people who may have family or friends or have visited this wonderful part of the world. What are apart from those bayside areas, what are some of the suburbs people need to be particularly vigilant in.
Well, when you come to Inland Brisbane, Brisbane proper, the suburbs of concerned are going to be a lot of those have experienced water through them before, back in twenty eleven the floods and also twenty twenty two, so places like Nudge Beach, Rockley, Ashgrove, Milton, Rosalie, Tuwong over your Wronger Pilly. Those areas that river in a flooding area that the residents are familiar with. They're the ones to watch out for. But it is an unpredictable how it's
going to behave where the actual rain falls. It's not a river flood as such, this one because it's coming from the coast and the water is not sort of falling over land like the other big big weather events we've had. But Rockley, Nudgy Beach, Windsor is well as another one those inner western suburbs, parts of Walk and Flower. Rosalie Village is pretty much the lowest street in Brisbane, so those you would expect would be the first ones
to go under. Just off Park Road there at Milton, pretty close to where I live, actually is going to be threatened by flood waters, no doubt, But you're wrong. Pilly, Rockerilely, Oxley are some of the suburbs to name but a few.
Good on you boys, Thank you very much again, have your rest because we've got plenty ahead of us in the next couple of days. Of course, as soon as the sun rises, they'll be here with first edition with Pete in the morning all the way through to us tomorrow night. Alison Osbourne is a meteorologist with Sky News Weather. Allison give us an idea of some of the early impacts of this tropical cyclone, Alfred.
Paul Well right behind me, you can see cool and Gatta Beach disappearing in a storm surge today. These are the kind of waves that make swimming extremely dangerous, even unthinkable. They can lead to quite dangerous flooding in the surf zone and also enough to break the waveboy that measures those wave heights off the Gold Coast. Now, the stop start rain that you all have been talking about this evening, you can see it has been rolling on in as
the rainbands headotropical Cyclone Alfred roll on through. But it is this dark echo out to see. This is not stop start. This will be the heavy, persistent rain as that system crosses the coast.
It is on its way.
We've seen damaging wind gars in excess of one hundred and five kilometers per.
Uric cake byron.
Today the winds are picking up through the coasters well. Tropical cyclone warnings remain current for all communities between Double Island Point in Queensland and Grafton in New South Wales. That warning area hasn't changed, it's just the timing of the impacts and the duration which are now being impacted.
Yeah, amazing graphics, particularly that very ominous sense of as you say, the stop start range that becomes quite persistent, quite difficult again twenty four to seven, make sure that you can check out the weather channel on Foxtel and also at Sky news dot Com dot Au. Now, Allison, give us an idea as this as the tropical cyclone is slowing, that of course is delaying its ultimate impact. What does that mean for the people who are in the path.
Of this thing, Well, Paul I would say to everyone in this area in red this is very much an underway event now, even though we have more than twenty four hours before this system the coast. At this stage, coastal crossing is likely between newser and Cool and Gata in the early hours of Saturday morning. The system is likely to weaken as it crosses the islands off Morton Bay, so Stradbroke Island and Morton Island likely reaching a Category one by the time it does so. But it's the
areas to the south of the system crossing. So at this stage this forecast model and the official forecast track pill has that heavier rain and more destructive winds over Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Byron Coast. So whether or not you'll be impacted by the most dangerous impacts on Friday night and into Saturday morning will depend on ultimately where that system crosses. So this is why that warning
area is very extensive. Of those who need to be prepared from Double Island Point in Queensland right the.
Way through to the Coffs Coast.
We're watching for the threat of destructive winds but also heavy rain. Twenty four hour rainfall totals three hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty millimeters.
It's a huge amount of.
Rain which can lead to very dangerous flash flooding, so stay off the roads. Destructive winds are most likely just south of the system center as it crosses Paul.
Meanwhile, damaging winds are.
Possible throughout this entire yellow shaded area over the course of Friday and inn to Saturday.
Now flooding this is likely to be a.
Prolonged impact since the storm has really slowed down. Therefore, the Bureau Meteorology has issued initial major flood warnings for a number of river catchments in northern New South Wales and down towards the mid North Coast, including the Wilsons River, the Brunswick River and the Nambuca River.
In terms of the flood.
Timings, major flooding at this stage is likely from late Friday night, so heavy rain kicking in tomorrow, but then that flood impact that could continue well after the system has made landfall.
Allison, thank you for all the information. You can't get enough of it at this time. What you guys are doing at the Weather Channel is always amazing, and it's going is whether we really do appreciate everything that you guys are doing. Now, as you saw on the bottom of the screen, we can't fly in to southeast Queensland or northern New South Wales anymore. It's one of the reasons why after the show last night, the very first chance we got we took because this afternoon Brisbane Airport
no longer taking the domestic flights. Both virgin and Quatas have said no more. The same for the Sunny Coast and the Maruchi do Or Airport a little further down towards Ballina, which is often the way people will get into Byron Bay, that too is now unavailable for flight now. Even flying in this morning, when as I said, it was the beginning of a pretty blue sky day, pretty bumpy right on the way in, we had to do
plenty of circles. So imagine what this would have been like if they were trying to fly tonight and into tomorrow. Good safety decisions made by the airlines. Now again, if you're one of these people that are on some of those outlying islands, be it Straty or all of these ones, can you get in touch with us Paulotskynews dot com dot you because I want to talk to you tomorrow
or not on the show. We are absolutely aware of what is happening in your communities, so let's make sure that the country knows everything that is happening with you now. As you know, in natural disasters, it comes down to often the premiere of a state to be able to pull all of the information together and to set a nice even tone. Yes, you have to tell people what is at stake, but clearly you don't want to panic personally. I think the new Premier of Queens And David Crucifoley
is passing that mark with flying colors. But we have the opportunity to go to the emergency center in Kedron in the middle of Brisbane a bit earlier today and we went behind the scenes with the premiere, not just about the messages but how they are being put together now, what information they might know just before us, and why the Premier is committed to the second he knows we know David Crucifoley is the Premier of Queensland. Love you to see you. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances.
But it's great to you're here though, Thank you very very much.
Now from behind us is where you give the message multiple times a day, and that message has been one that feels like it is extending and it's coming and then it's going. What's your sense in and around making sure that people don't get frustrated with how things change.
I've been through a lot of these.
They are anything but predictable, and they'll speed up, they'll slow down. Overnight, it did a circle on itself and then started coming towards the case again. All we can do is give people information. And you mentioned about this room. I'm a big believer in you just give people info. And if you continue to do that and you say to people, well, this is what I know today. In one of our earlier press conferences, I had literally received some information five minutes before we went and did it.
And rather than wait for the next one, I'll give it. I'll give it to people.
I have this fundamental view that this authoritarian I'll keep the information. It never works, it ends badly for everyone. I'm always of the belief if you've got information, you give it, people will make the right decisions.
So can you give us an idea of operationally how all of this is working. Where obviously you could go crazy running around and asking everyone to refresh their screens, but I'm assuming there's a set time each hour where everything gets refreshed. There's a top of our give us an idea of what happens in between the press conference.
So the weather Bureau update every three hours as it gets closer.
When it's crossing, we'll do that hourly. So you have satellites that.
Go over it and in real time that information comes back. And what it does is it enables us to say, okay, this is the track. So we then say this is how quickly it's going per hour, and then you model.
What it looks like.
So a couple of days ago, we thought it was going to cross the coast deep into Thursday night early Friday morning. That was about high tide early morning Friday high tide.
That's where the big risk is.
That's now pushed back, and so initially it was pushed back into Friday, and I thought this is great, but the modeling is now showing it going deeper into Saturday, so we're back with the same headache. The reason why that's so problematic is if it crosses on high tide, that's when those storm surges can really matter. And some of the predictions are point five to one meter, some of them even a little bit higher over and above that highest tie.
That's a problem.
So that's why we said to people, go on to that website and we've got all of the councils have fed in their data and people can see if they are in a storm surge area and if you are, we want people to have an evacuation plan. Can you go and stay with friends and family? But has just absorbed that information and make an informed decision if they're not. That's the vast majority of Queenslanders stay home. The safest
place for you is in your home. Do the little things move the stuff from around the ard and you'll be find.
So with the information that you're getting, I mean, we live in this world now where what is available online through governments, through councils, through the bureau is amazing. Is there a layer of data that is just slightly more complicated, but basically the same time as everyone else is saying.
And my view as you give the data and if you don't, what happens is you then have momentum that gets away from you. So we picked up earlier in the day that some people were saying that the electricity providers would turn off power before the system comes.
So we had the head of energy say, come.
And say, whack it on the head.
Wack it on the head, Garbet, and he said, why would I turn off power?
Mother nature does it for me. I want to keep it on as long as it can.
It was one of those beautiful moments where you say, okay, that's how you address information, and by doing that, the everyday person at home says, okay, great, I'll get my news from the right source.
So I'm a big believer. Just keep updating.
So again you've spoken about the four different threats. Again for those that aren't seeing the latest of the briefings, what are those wind?
Water, rain, and flooding And in the end, everyone in that zone is going to get something or a combination of them that is becoming inevitable. If you look at the system, we've already had winds that have just clocked one hundred klimeters an hour on some of those outer islands.
So it's coming now. You just got to do the little things.
And I've seen in these events that if you do those small things, the preparation, and overwhelmingly people get through them. And our job is to just let people know as we get that information.
And I've got.
Faith that the vast majority of people do not need the heavy hand of government saying breathe now, don't breathe now, don't drive.
Don't do this.
You give the information and wherever possible. Now, like I got asked today, will you close the roads today? No, because it's still safe to drive, and I need the ability for the emergency services personnel to go out, and I need the ability for the essential worker to go
to the hospital and have the emergency department open. Now, when it reaches the point that it's no longer safe, you put the message out Okay, here it is, but there's no need to do that well ahead of the time when people can still go about their business.
Again. I don't know if you can talk about it or want to talk about it, but behind the scenes, what's something that is happening in the rooms behind us and around us that is so vital. It might be a really small part or it's a really big part. People don't know about about what's happening here in four everything.
So in the room underneath you is teams and we bring everyone together so it's sees, it's fire is, it's coppers, it's the Bureau of Meteorology, it's community volunteers and everyone's in one melting pot. And it's all about information flow. And when what we then do is we couple it in. We bring predominantly local government. Now I'm a big believer in you've got to get councils because ultimately they're the ones who are running the sandbags and running the evacuation centers.
There's no point feeding them what you want them to know.
They also should be part of it. You meet a couple of times a day.
We make sure that all though information comes up, and it's around the clock, so it's they're long days, but it's fulfilling to see.
It really is final message to Queensland wherever it happens to be and watching us. Now, we'll get it done. We always do.
And it's been been half a century since the cyclone of this size came to the southern part of the state.
But it's not unprecentered.
It's happened before, happened in nineteen ninety, in nineteen seventy three and in nineteen fifty four. They do happen and you will get through it. And I've seen it at the other end of the state and made it really really tough stuff.
Queenslanders are pretty tough.
We'll be right, buddy O if you are, Thank you, Premier. I'm so glad that bloke is the Premiere of Queensland at this moment and for four years at least, we hope in my view to come in David crucifully Now, I don't want to overload systems, so maybe do this a little bit later at night. But there is a phenomenal website that the Queensland Government has set up over many years. It's not a partisan thing. It's been around
for a long time. It's called disaster dot Qld dot gov dot Au, disaster dot Qld dot gov dot AU and in that it brings up a dashboard and you're able once you're at that dashboard to find your local council and get to local information information and certainly those of us who have been through fires and floods and lots of other things. The information can be a little bit sporadic, it feels real time information, and that's because this place is very practiced at dealing with situations like this.
Of course, it is many generations since something as potentially big as this, And again, for those that are watching half paying attention, my absolute hope of the next couple of days is that we've prepared everyone and then something moves well and truly out to see. But all trajectory, all belief, all modeling is that it is going to make its way across landfall exactly where that eye is
going to be. Some people will say that it is the CBD of Brisbane itself, some will say that it's Redcliffe, some will say that it is a little further down. But the whole point is, basically, for one of a bitter term that strikes own, it's all the way from the Sunny Coast into Brisbane, into the Gold Coast and into the Northern Rivers. Which is why we're going to talk to somebody from each of those local government areas next, because they know exactly what you need to know. More
in a moment here from Redcliffe on Palmurray line. All right, let's find out exactly what is happening in your part of Australia or if you are watching us from outside of what is going to be the focus of the next few days. This is where your family is, it's where your friends are, it's where you've been on holidays. Have a look at this. We're now going to talk to the leaders of all of the communities that are
going to be affected here. We're talking about from the Sunshine Coast through to Brisbane, the Gold Coast and into the Northern Rivers, and we're going to get to the Sunshine Coast in a moment. And I just wanted to make sure that people are keeping the emails coming, which is to Paullittskuyews dot com dot au, Rosanna and Natali is the mayor of the Sunshine Coast and she joins us. Now all right, Rosanna, some of the modeling says that
the eye is a little further south. However, I've got family in your part of the world and they really want to know what is about to happen and what is the preparations that has been put in place by the great people of the Sunny Coast good evening.
We have been preparing for a number of days now as we know, the cyclone has certainly taken a little time to get across the coast, so we have done a lot of sandbagging. There have been almost one hundred thousand sandbags filled by members of our community and across
homes right across our region. Of course, making sure all of the supplies people have got food, water, batteries, all of those things in case we lose power or of course internet telecommunications, water might go, so that's been underway. We're also making sure that we have all of our maps on our disaster Hub website so you can have a look if your property is going to be impacted by a storm surge or by that riverine flooding that will come with the rain in a couple of days.
Those maps are up there. So really we've been asking our community members to make sure they're aware, the yards are tidy. All of that sort of thing has been going on for days and now we wait. As difficult as it is to wait and watch, we know as well the cyclone did a loop de loop last night, so who knows what might happen. It's very unpredictable.
So we are waiting and watching.
Good on you, Rosanna. Thank you so much. I want everyone to keep attention again on that website. Can you give it one more time for the local information for people on the Sunny Coast.
Yes, it is disaster hub dot Sunshine Coast dot QLD, dot gov dot AU.
Good stuff. Thank you so much. Josh Mitchell is the mayor of Redland City. That's exactly where I am right now, so give us an idea about your preparations.
So we're probably mirroring a lot of what Rosanna just talked about. I think probably local councils are all dealing with the same issue issues right now. We have put a lot of airfitt into preparation as well. However, we're very much on alert right now given the latest updates. So northern North Stradbroke Island is due to see some a big uptake in winds from about two to four
am tomorrow morning. So we're trying to get the message out to residents right now, particularly on North Stradbroke Island, to prepare.
For the impact of those winds.
So category two cyclone, you know, we're expecting rims of well over one hundred pa so yeah, we're asking everyone to make sure they're in a safe position, that they've done all their preparation and they're ready for the wind and the tides when they come.
Josh, when do you the opportunities end for people to be able to get off something like strati So they actually ended on Tuesday.
Ferry services cease on Tuesday, so we put a lot of messaging out prior to that saying that if you felt the need to leave the island, then you know, to make that decision. At that time, we also had assistance from the Queensland Police Service or knocking low lying areas that were addressed or identified during our mapping phase and we provided residents with a flyer and information about
making that decision. At that time, we had no one actually choose to leave the island as a result of that information, so that gave us some I guess hope that people felt safe or had safe places to go on the island. There was one aged care facility with ten residents that was successfully relocated earlier in the week.
Josh, good on you. This is a beautiful part of Australia. The website people need to be in across for you.
Guys Redland dot Disaster dot QLD dot Gulf dot AU and it's got all of our information at our mapping on that page as well, and we encourage everyone to jump online and subscribe.
Thank you mate. Once you go through Central bri when you're on your way south towards the GC the border, but of course you go through Logan and it's mere John Raven joins us. Now, what's the situation for preparation and how proud are you of the good folk who work for you on the council but also live in Mighty Logan did a poll.
It's so fantastic to see how our community is coming together and working to help each other. What I've been most proud of is that when we do sandbags, we just put sand out and get people to come and self serve. But I don't think anyone's actually had to load their own sandbag, especially our elderly and disabled residents. They're getting help from community members and we've pumped out over one hundred and eighty thousand sand bags in four days. That's two thy five hundred tons of sand.
I'm pretty sure we've.
Taken just about every grain of sand off the Gold coast and put it in a sandbag. But we're not just helping people in Logan. I know residents from Redlands and from the Gold Coasts have come up as well, because we know during a disaster borders don't matter. People matter, and so we're just working to help everybody.
All right, give me an idea about how many people work for the council and what types of jobs they may traditionally do, but in times like this they end up doing something else.
So we've got about two thousand staff at Logan City Council, and the ones that do the work during this preparation phase are the people that always do those jobs. So today we asked all of the guys that we'd stood down because we thought that plod Alfred was going to come across the border. We stood them down and said, you don't need to deliver any more sand. We bought those guys back in and asked them to do overtime so that they could pump out more sand for people
today so they could have sandbags. But the real people who who are the heroes are the people who are working twenty four to seven in our local disaster coordination center. They come from all over the council. You've got people who might be parks designers, engineers, You've got people who specialize in disaster or in customer service, and they volunteer to come in and do this extra work because they want to make sure the community is kept safe.
Good on your John. The website. People need to have a look at.
All of our information is on disaster dot logan dot curld do a. You can check out flood maps. You can see our flood cameras and everything else that you'll need over the coming days.
Good stuff. My spiritual homeland, the Gold Coast, I know it like the back of my hand, and I look forward to it being a big part of my future. But right now, let's talk about the next couple of days. The acting mayor is Donna Gates, and she joins us. Now, Donna, the Gold Coast. It's got plenty of complications where you've got everything from basically sort of the Runaway Bay all the way down. You've also got in all of those
different canals. What is different about the way the Gold Coast has to prepare for something like this tropical cyclone.
We've had a great concern, Paul about the high rise accommodation right along our coastline. So it's been a massive task to try and encourage everyone to take everything from their balconies inside their units because of course the risk of loose goods becoming projectiles. So that's been a challenge, but I think we've got there. We've had wonderful support from the police and the sees who have been door
knocking consistently. Energex has been a great support. We had two thy nine hundred and nine homes without power today and that was mostly in our hinterland area where trees had fallen across power lines. So there has been briefings from our council daily with the most up to date information. I see you had the premiere on and the Premier has been magnificent. He's had briefings for us, including all of local government, twice daily with the very latest of information.
So at four point fifteen today we found out that the cyl cyclone may drop to a category one as it reaches the coastline. I don't think that's going to make a material difference to the amount of water that we receive, but it's great to have the latest information.
All right your website.
We like people to Google Dashboard Gold Coast that will take them directly to the link, and there's a big blue tab that they can click on to get to the flood modeling, and there's various flood models that give them the worst case scenario and the likely scenario.
All right, good on your donna. Let's cross the border to liz More. Steve Creig is there, Lord Mayor, and mate, I know things are particularly tough for you personally and for many people in that community, because you're already being told it's time to go.
A little evacuation center as we speak. We've got to ask to leave at about six o'clock tonight. So we made our way back up to the home that we spent ten months after the twenty twenty two disaster. So I f I'm a little bit flatter, a little bit look, a little bit tired, and it's been a big day.
I understand. Mate. Look, I'm just gonna can we just fix his audio if I can, I'll just pat for a couple of seconds and we'll double check on Steve's audio here, because I do want to give him a chance to further explain the situation in the Northern Rivers. The premiere Chris Mins is currently in that area. We know, as we spoke with the Balonimir last night, that there are plenty of people who were in very temporary accommodation. That's accommodation that's not going to be able to take
some of the winds. There's plenty of people who still have not even fully rebuilt when it comes to the floods. I don't know if we've still got Steve, but I'll try one more time here. In fact, don't forget that Queensland website, which of course is a disaster dot QLD dot gov dot Au, disaster dot QLD dot gov dot AU. All right, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and see if we've got Steve one more time. So Steve,
how sorry we've lost him again? Okay, all right, we will pick it up in a moment of two time where we will get more information from Brisbane. If we can get Steve back, I would like to have a chat to him more in a moment. Here we are as you can see, the wind is starting to pick up, rains starting to pick up, but then it may well fall away in just a couple of minutes time. But the reality is that the tropical cyclone is coming to southeast Queensland and the northern parts of New South Wales
more in a second. Our rolling coverage, of course, will be all day tomorrow, we'll be across it tomorrow night and of course all weekend here on Sky News. He's been so kind to us, so I wanted to make sure that we fix the connection and again talk to him about the situation where mate, you guys have gone through so much and now the idea that you as it's champion representative is back where you were a couple
of years ago. I don't know how you put one foot in front of the other, but you guys will find a way.
The quote one of the great movies Poor I'm a donkey on the on the edge from It's really bloody tough to be honest with you and to think on Saturday we held a big fundraising event. I'm wearing their shirt that you know you do a fitness challenge to get a free T shirt. But Saturday you couldn't have got better conditions. Thursday night we've evacuated a city. It's just unbelievable what our residents go through. And couldn't be prouder of the toughness of our town. But how much more can we take?
Bloody Steve, We love you mate, We'll talk again tomorrow. All the best to you and the community. I want to make sure that you heard that message loud and clear. Chris Jones is the editor of the Courier Mail. They are an absolute go to source. They got the latest data, photos, stories. Chris. I've been deeply impressed by what the role out is and how it compares to other states. As a person who's well and truly of this place knows it all. Is the system holding up? Are the complaints? Give me
an idea? Am I this with a level of rose colored glasses? All these queens ain't actually stepping up to the moment.
Absolutely, Paul, It's been so good to see everyone listening to the advice and helping their neighbors as well. It's been a weird day in Brisbane, particularly down on the coast. Obviously, it's been shocking and to feel sad for those people in northern New South Wales who have already copped I think what's coming our way, but been a strange day to day, so I'm a little bit concerned that people might get a little bit complacent. This thing is still
coming for us. And while today in Brisbane, as you well know you're standing there at Recliff, it's only just started to rain, the wind's been down, it hasn't really been whipping up. We're going to wake up tomorrow and
this thing's going to be bearing down on us. We're going to have two three days of pretty intense weather and hopefully everyone just sticks to the plans days at home, does the right thing, and do not fall into a sense of complacency after today's pause, as Alfred stayed out there and sort of thumbed its nose at us.
Paul. Also, what I have found amazing about today was how people took the message right. I've mentioned before, I got family on the Sunny Coast, mates here in Redcliffe and of course all over Brizzy Goldie, all the rest of it. Right, people took the message. They stayed at home. They'll do so again. It really helped that they shut the schools. But you're so right, which is okay. Just because today was okay, it doesn't mean tomorrow's going to
be okay. No doubt, your reporters, your photographers have been able to capture many wonderful acts of kindness, even when I was just at the entertainment center before watching people filling sandbags so they can bring them back to their neighbors. What's some of the stuff that stood out to you about people helping either a stranger or the person who lives next door.
Beautiful stories, aren't they They're just so nice. It brings out the best in people. And I think that's one of the great things about times like this that really, you know, it really unite is it gives us an excuse to talk to our neighbor or to help our neighbor.
It's been really lovely, you know, just wandering around and you can see that people are It brings you know, you're all going through the same thing, you're all preparing, and it's been lovely to hear people offering to you know, send the husband around to you clean out the whatever the gutters, or move the furniture inside of for someone who lives by themselves, or you know, just doing the
right thing. It's been wonderful to see Paul. We always do band together, and it's great to see it beforehand, and we're going to have to see it again in a few days time. Because I've just looked at where that you know, where that weather's going, and we are in for an absolute drenching hopefully fingers crossed.
Paul.
The wind is not going to be as bad.
As we thought.
When it crosses, it's still going to be a cyclone, but let's hope it's a one, not a two or even a three, which was on the cards yesterday, where the winds will still be extreme, but hopefully not as bad and not as damaging.
But gee, this some rain and at Paul, and.
We're going to have to band together again as we have many times in the southeast. That is at least one thing. We might not be used to cyclones, but we are used to flooding rains in summer tragically. And I think there's a heck of a lot more to come, Paul. So everyone just needs to stick together, keep checking on your neighbors, keep doing the right thing. It's a really nice time to see the community pool together as you've seen today, Paul.
Yeah. Absolutely. I don't know if we're allowed to say it, but anyway, we're all Queenslanders for the next few days. And you know how much I love this state, and I know how much you do as well, and serving it via the Courier Marl Mate, it is spectacular the coverage that you and the team are put together. Well done, mate. We'll talk again over the next couple of days. Good on you, Chris. Thanks Paul, he's a good man. Chris
Jones there running the Courier mail. And of course don't forget all of these people that we're talking to have their own lives, that they've got, their own families, their own houses that they need to be sand banking, their own communities that they're worried about, and the fact that they are able to chug on for the wider communities, be they volunteers, the people who are the counselors, the police officers, all of that stuff. It really really matters.
As I said, to see this with my own eyes is just a little bit frightening about where it might go in the next couple of days. The fingers crossed is that, as Chris says, it's about rain, it's not about wind. But once you start to throw these things together, as the premiere said, then you could be dealing with four things at once. Now, let me tell you what the plan is in terms of what I'm going to be doing here on Sky News in the next couple of days. We'll have lots of conversation on the Telly
Special shows and all the rest of it. Now, can I also make it very clear that while tonight we are standing in the wind and the rain, we're not going to be doing anything stupid and making gifts of ourselves. We're going to try to keep ourselves as safe as possible, which I definitely hope everyone does here in Southeast Queensland.
But of course, the whole purpose of this show, as you know, is a show that celebrates our country, celebrates it at its best, and is here when it is at its worst and our people are going through its worst. So if you're a paid emergency service person, a volunteer, or somebody who is just taking care of somebody you know, thank you a big couple of days ahead, Thanks so much for watching tonight. We'll see you again tomorrow here for a special edition of Paul Murray Life