More than 100 roads were closed, with low-lying areas in Windsor some of the first to go under. The Coles at Morningside on the city’s southside was evacuated after its carpark flooded.
Supermarkets reopened but with limited stock on the shelves due to strained supply chains. At Woolworths on Montague Road in West End there was nothing but two pumpkins in the fresh fruit and vegetable section.
In Holland Park West, 81 millimetres of rain was recorded in two hours to 10am, while 142 millimetres was recorded at Mount Glorious between midnight and 6am.
Seqwater began releasing water from North Pine Dam at 3am, but was keeping a watching brief on Wivenhoe and Somerset dams.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Sue Oates said the rain would ease in Brisbane from Monday.
“But don’t expect that the skies will be clear … It will be unsettled, and we are expecting showers and potentially thunderstorms through our area,” she said.
“Finally … we should see an easing of the conditions on Tuesday.”
She added that it was unlikely Brisbane would experience a repeat of the 2022 floods.
“In 2022, we had four days of persistent, heavy rainfall across the Brisbane River catchment, and we don’t have that prolonged rainfall for this event,” she said.
Wild, rough night as Alfred hit
Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred made landfall at 9pm on Saturday, after dawdling off Bribie Island, where it sat for 12 hours without moving on Saturday.
When it finally arrived just north of Brisbane, the city was buffeted by howling, gale-force winds, making it an uncomfortable night for many.
Trees were uprooted and came crashing down on houses, cars and power lines, debris flew through the air and windows and doors rattled, catching residents by surprise after the weather had remained benign for much of Saturday.
Giant fig trees in Brisbane’s CBD were toppled.
Redcliffe on the city’s northern fringe was among the hardest-hit areas, as roofs were ripped from several homes.
But Redcliffe resident Daniel Goullet told Nine News he stayed fast asleep when the tin roof of his home was peeled off and tossed over powerlines across the road, amid wind gusts of 104km/h.
A woman was injured on Anzac Avenue when a tree fell on her car about 9.30pm, and another person was taken to hospital after a tree came down on their house on Francis Road in Lawnton.
The weather bureau’s Angus Hines said Brisbane experienced an “extra squeeze” in the wind between the ex-tropical cyclone and a high-pressure system over the Tasman Sea.
Sue Oates added: “Even though the systems do weaken below tropical cyclone intensity, they then interact with their surrounding environment in which they sit.”
In another unusual turn of events, sea surface winds from the remnants of Alfred generated a fierce, near-stationary storm over Hervey Bay, about three hours north of Brisbane.
More than 230 millimetres of rain was dumped over Hervey Bay in just six hours, causing some of the city’s worst flash flooding in recent history.
“There’s flash flooding right across … a lot of water in properties, more than 20 people rescued,” mayor George Seymour said.
“It’s been an extraordinary flash-flooding event … I’ve never seen it like this in my 20 years in Hervey Bay.”
People were rescued from their cars and homes, the police station and watchhouse were evacuated and police helped move nursing home residents to higher ground.
“You’ll never stop Mother Nature, but you have to prepare for it,” the premier said.
There were signs of life slowly coming back to normal in Brisbane, despite the rising floodwaters and power outages on Sunday. Brisbane and Gold Coast airports reopened, but many flights were cancelled.
Buses are set to resume on Monday after operating briefly on Sunday before drivers were called in due to the poor conditions.
Meanwhile, two baby boys named “Alfie” were born in Brisbane on Friday. Mater Mothers’ Hospital general manager Kerri Gane said the boys were among 66 babies born at the facility over the past three days.
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