On Saturday, Thousands of people in eastern Australia were ordered to evacuate because the heavy rain and winds of the Tropical Cyclone Alfred may make a soon landfall near Brisbane, which is the country's third-largest city.
The cyclon caused widespread power outages along the southern Queensland and northern New South Wales coasts.
People who don't want to leave their houses were urged to stay inside ahead of its expected hit as a Category 2 storm, per the Bureau of Meteorology.
Airports, schools and businesses were closed, as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology warned. The landfall could cause heavy rain and floods ahead.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a Friday briefing that rainfall and wind impacts were expected to continue increasing.
"This is a serious weather event, with heavy rain, destructive winds and major flooding expected," Albanese said.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli at a briefing called Cyclone Alfred an "extremely rare event," with the last such storm hitting state capital Brisbane in 1974.
"Overnight we saw it packed a punch," he said, after some 82,000 properties on Queensland's Gold Coast and northern NSW lost power.
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