With Tropical Cyclone Alfred slowly making its way towards the South East Queensland coast at a speed of 7km per hour the waiting game has started.

Earlier in the week it was expected to cross the coast on Thursday, which became early Friday morning, then afternoon and now early Saturday morning. Plans were put in place to close down Brisbane and the surrounding region as of Wednesday evening. All public transport stopped, most businesses closed, and the supermarkets and other essential locations were closing Thursday afternoon and everything was to be closed Friday. Everyone was advised to stay at home and wait. Which has now become wait through Friday as well.

There have been some adjustments to the closures but nothing substantial, more a case of things due to close staying open a bit longer. There haven’t been any announcements yet about whether supermarkets and the like will open for some time Friday. Once a large business has made the decision to be closed, cancelled deliveries and rearranged rosters it’s not any easy pivot to say you’re open again.

The basement carparks of my apartment building, and many around us, were flooded in the rain event in March 2022 so there is some anxiety across the neighbourhood as to what to do with cars. I didn’t want to move mine to the street but was concerned I’d have to in the middle of torrential rain. Fortunately, there’s a small shopping complex at the top of my street which has raised the boom gates and made the carparks available (and free) until at least Monday. They did the same in the 2022 floods so I was waiting to see what they would do. When word went round on the building WhatsApp group last night I decided to take my car up then and leave it there. It’s a full carpark now so I’m glad I did. It’s also one less thing to worry about. 

We switched to work from home as of Wednesday through until next Monday. It’s been good to keep busy but I’m beginning to get restless. I think I’d mentally prepared myself to finish up on Thursday and be off work post-cyclone on Friday but now the uncertainty has crept in. What will work advise and when will they advise is bouncing around in my head. I’ve checked in with my teams and the moods varies from still hoping it goes away through to could it just come now. 

I cleared my balcony the other day, I have plenty of water, plenty of non-perishable food to see through any power outage, I have some buckets ready to fill with water to help with the toilet if we lose mains pressure, I have a battery radio tuned to the local ABC station. I’ve made the important trip to Dan Murphy’s to acquire some additional gin supplies. One should never waste an opportunity to restock. I’m from north Queenslander, I’ve been through a cyclone and seen them come close. I know I’m as prepared as I can be.

All I can do is wait.