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Speaker 1: So Australia is bracing for tropical Cyclone Alfred to hit.

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Speaker 1: It's slowed down a little bit. Tens of thousands of

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Speaker 1: people are now without power across Southeast Queensland and northern

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Speaker 1: New South Wales, and thousands more have been ordered to evacuate.

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Speaker 1: We've already had one hundred and twenty kilometers in our

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Speaker 1: wind gusts between Morton Island and Byron Bay, and the

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Speaker 1: Category two storm is expected to make landfall from tonight.

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Speaker 1: Here is Australia's Prime Minister, Anthony Albanezi. These are tough times,

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Speaker 1: but Australian's a tough people and we're resilient people. My

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Speaker 1: message to people where they've be in Southeast Queensland or

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Speaker 1: northern New South Wales is we are there to support you.

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Speaker 2: We have you all back.

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Speaker 1: So Australian correspondent Donna Tomayo is with me. Hello, Donna, Hello,

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Speaker 1: there's just been a statement.

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Speaker 2: Yes, the latest report from the Bureau of Meteorology has

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Speaker 2: been released. It was just twenty minutes ago we heard

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Speaker 2: from them, and we know that Cyclone Alfred is expected

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Speaker 2: to make landfall tonight or early tomorrow morning and it

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Speaker 2: is packing wings of around one hundred ks an hour

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Speaker 2: at the moment, but some areas. In some areas it

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Speaker 2: might reach one hundred and fifty five k's per hour,

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Speaker 2: and about eight hundred millimeters of rain is forecast.

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Speaker 1: Yes, there's sort of surges because the high tides at

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Speaker 1: an awkward time, and so there's the likelihood of flooding

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Speaker 1: and low lying coastal land.

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Speaker 2: Have people evacuated, Yes, the first evacuations have been ordered

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Speaker 2: in some areas you mentioned. These high tides have actually

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Speaker 2: occurred already, these enormous surges, they're called king tides in fact,

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Speaker 2: or monster tides. In one area, twelve meter waves were

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Speaker 2: seen on the Gold Coast at a place called Main Beach,

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Speaker 2: and there's been some close calls. A number of people

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Speaker 2: in these beach goers and surfers have been caught in

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Speaker 2: these sudden rising tides. And now we know that a

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Speaker 2: couple of people have already been taken to hospital because

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Speaker 2: they got injured as they got swept out in surf.

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Speaker 2: But thankfully there's been no fertilities, no tragedies, and hopefully

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Speaker 2: that stays that way.

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Speaker 1: So what's going to happen? I mean, I'm reading that

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Speaker 1: the thing has slowed down and everyone's going, well, if

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Speaker 1: it's sitting out there out in the water, it's just

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Speaker 1: going to get more powerful. You know, winners are going

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Speaker 1: to hit and what's going to happen.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean in the lead up, some people are saying, well,

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Speaker 2: thankfully the slowing down of the cyclone means they've got

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Speaker 2: more time to prepare. But I mean, imagine the anxiety

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Speaker 2: waiting for this to hit. It's the first time that

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Speaker 2: this area has been struck or has had a cyclone

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Speaker 2: hit a landfall since nineteen seventy four. There's department stores,

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Speaker 2: coal stores, I should say it closed across Queensland. Major

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Speaker 2: airlines have stopped flights. There's about a thousand schools that

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Speaker 2: have closed down, public transports shut down, and as we mentioned,

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Speaker 2: there's some power. Some areas have no power. The trees

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Speaker 2: have already started falling and that impacts power lines. Of course,

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Speaker 2: so torrential rain is coming and we know that authorities

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Speaker 2: are saying do not underestimate this storm.

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Speaker 1: Well, okay, thank you Donald Demayo reporting out of Australia. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: there has been some cyclone damage and I don't want

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Speaker 1: to make light of things, but this is relatively entertaining

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Speaker 1: the Berlina big prawn has been hit. This is a

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Speaker 1: very big prawn and Billina. It's built in nineteen eighty nine.

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Speaker 1: It's nine meters high. This prawn weighs thirty five ton

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Speaker 1: and it's lost its feathers. The feathers have been blown

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Speaker 1: off by the wind. The big prawn has actually been

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Speaker 1: used as a landmark for residents to meet and collect

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Speaker 1: sandbags during the preparations for Alfred. And they're looking up

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Speaker 1: at there's big prawn and it's lost its feel. For

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Speaker 1: more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.

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Speaker 2: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,

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