(Bloomberg) -- Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred weakened to a tropical low and was still lingering off the coast of Brisbane on Saturday afternoon, sparing Australia’s third-biggest city from any major damage.
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The storm still threatens to bring high winds and flooding to an area stretching from northern New South Wales into southeast Queensland. Its winds had dropped to 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour with gusts of 85 kph, according to an advisory from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
“While it has been downgraded, very serious risks remain,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra on Saturday morning. “Its impact will be serious and its impact will intensify over coming hours, and indeed coming days,” he said.
A 61-year-old man is missing after his car was swept off a flooded bridgein New South Wales on Friday, and “grave concerns” are held for his safety, Albanese said.
The storm had originally been forecast to cross the coast on Thursday. Delays have given authorities and residents more time to prepare, though the slow-moving nature of the system means that heavy rains have saturated large sections of the coastline.
The Gold Coast tourism hub south of Brisbane has recorded record wave heights of above 12 meters (39 feet), creating erosion and threatening homes. In the popular tourist spot of Byron Bay, Australian Broadcasting Corp. television showed footage of uprooted trees and overturned picnic tables on the beachfront.
The Bureau of Meteorology warned that Alfred could still deliver intense rainfall, life-threatening flash flooding, and abnormally high tides.
More than 280,000 customers have lost power so far in Queensland and New South Wales, distributors Energex and Essential Energy said Saturday. Dozens of communities have been ordered to evacuate, and airports and ports in the region have shuttered.
Lismore, a small inland city in northern New South Wales, is among communities enduring evacuations, with authorities warning flood levels there could reach 17 meters (56 feet). That’s higher than the floods it endured in 2022, which killed five people.
Some scientific research suggests rising temperatures are causing tropical cyclones to shift toward the Earth’s poles, delivering extreme weather in places not accustomed to managing such hazards. Areas in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales are among locations that face growing threats, Climate Risk Group said in a statement.