School reopenings set to be announced, as council launches special bin collection

“In an event like this, no one pays their bills when they’re closed,” he said.

“They need us to help get them up on their feet, so if a small business owner believes that they can open tomorrow, of course they should be able to – and if someone believes that they should go and be able to drive there and support them, even better.”

Bureau of Meteorology Brisbane manager Matthew Collopy said there remained a risk of life-threatening” flooding across the region as long as the ex-cyclone continued to dump water.

“As the remnants of the tropical cyclone moves inland, we’ll see an in feed of tropical moisture driving heavy to intense rainfall, and we’re expecting widespread totals of three to 500 millimetres, and event totals of up to 700 millimetres are possible through to Monday,” he said.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said special red-top bin collections would occur on Sunday for residents who missed out when services were suspended on Thursday and Friday as Alfred approached.

“Council’s contractor has warned it may not be possible to complete every pick,” he said.

“The special service will require 175,000 collections in a single day. These bins are also likely to have additional volume after the suspension of services due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred.”

Schrinner said bins not collected on Sunday would be collected on their regular collection day next week.

“Regular collections of all bins, including yellow and green bins, will restart on Monday,” he said.

Green waste drop-off remained free until further notice.