Australia Bracing For Worst Cyclone In Decades

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (Worthy News) – Australia is on high alert, and people have been warned to leave or prepare for the worst as a tropical cyclone is on track to cross a densely populated part of the country’s coast for the first time in 50 years.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is looming off Queensland’s coast, threatening to bring heavy rainfall, damaging winds, and monster waves, officials said Monday.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s cyclone forecast said Alfred was due to maintain intensity as “a category two cyclone”. It warned the violent storm was to make landfall between Brisbane, the capital and largest city of Australia’s state of Queensland, and the Sunshine Coast late Thursday or early Friday morning.

“Communities from Sandy Cape south to Grafton, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and Byron Bay,” were in the “watch zone,” authorities said.

Earlier Monday, a Lithuanian rower was rescued off the Queensland coast after being caught in a tropical cyclone’s 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour winds and monster waves.

Aurimas Mockus ran into trouble about 740 kilometers (460 miles) east of Mackay while attempting a 12,000 kilometers (7,456 miles) Pacific Ocean crossing from San Diego to Brisbane in his solo rowing boat.

Officials announced that HMAS Choules, a 16,000-tonne Royal Australian Navy landing ship, rescued Mockus on Monday morning and was returning to Sydney.

GOLF EVENT

The cyclone also threatened to derail a golf event and disrupt the launch of the Australian Football League season.

Golf officials called off the Ladies European Tour co-sanctioned Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA) Championship event on the Gold Coast amid forecasts for “extreme wind” and flooding.

“The decision has been made to ensure the safety of players, staff, fans, and all stakeholders, which remains the priority,” organizers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Alfred also cast doubt on the Australian Football League (AFL) season-opening match despite the sport being the country’s most popular winter sport.

The reigning champion Brisbane Lions were scheduled to play the Geelong Cats in Brisbane on Thursday, but AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon suggested that organizers were anxiously monitoring the situation.

On Monday, there was better news for firm Rio Tinto C, which said that its iron ore export facility in Western Australia’s Dampier port resumed operations after being offline for over five weeks due to flooding from tropical cyclones.

“A railcar dumper at the East Intercourse Island (Ell) port facility was flooded when Tropical Cyclone Sean delivered record rain… Dumper operation at Ell resumed last week, and the first ship was loaded today,” Rio said.

It was a bright spot of economic news in a nation where many residents face days clouded by uncertainty over the impact of Cyclone Alfred.

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