‘Sick of waiting’: Some are relaxed, but Alfred’s delay adds anxiety for others
“I have heaps of work I should be doing, but I don’t want to sit here and do it,” Madge said. “So we’re going to go to the movies which are still open and see Bridget Jones’ Diary to kill time.”
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Anita Russell and her partner Brad Woodbine were trying to tire out their two kids and two young pups, Marmaduke and Tilly, at a nearby park.
Neither were too concerned about Alfred, saying it felt like a long weekend.
They have strapped down their trampoline and taken any loose items inside, just in case.
“We’re over-prepared for what we think is going to fizzle out,” Anita said.
Alexandra Headland beach on the Sunshine Coast was abuzz with swimmers and surfers despite the warnings to stay out of the water.
At coffee shop Milk and Beans, located just across the road from the Alexandra Headland surf club, customers sat at tables surrounded by sandbags on Friday.Credit: Catherine Strohfeldt
Other locals walked dogs, played football and rode bikes along the beach, as kids with the day off school clustered around the skate park.
At coffee shop Milk and Beans, located just across the road from the Alex Heads surf club, customers sat at tables surrounded by sandbags.
“We thought we were going to close on Thursday – we changed our plans,” Vicktor, the cafe’s manager, said. “We’re going to see how the weather is … I think we’re going to do it day-by-day.”
But preparing for this cyclone has been stressful for Russell and Kaye Willis. Their home has been wiped out twice before by floods. They’re not sure they can rebuild again.
Russell Willis and his wife Kaye have sandbagged her Graceville home after experiencing floods before.Credit: Dan Peled
About three tonnes of sandbags guarded the perimeter of their property on Austral Avenue in Graceville on Friday. Everything on the ground floor had been put into boxes and carried upstairs.
“I said after 2022 ‘I can’t go through another one’ and now it looks like it’s going to happen again,” Kaye said, after her 82-year-old husband Russell teared up.
The long wait for Alfred has also added extra anxiety for Aaron Hawke.
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“We had a fair bit of prep time but the delay has added more anxiety because now there’s more time to sit around and wait for something you don’t know how bad it will be,” he said.
He is facing his third flood in as many years at Brighton, but Cyclone Alfred may pose a new challenge.
Alfred’s late slowdown will provide no respite, with the delay ensuring heavy rain and massive surf will hit South East Queensland and northern NSW for longer.
