Finally sitting down and doing a quick write up.
BoM basically left us hanging way before it was really over by posting their last update/warning and tracking at around 07:00 am Saturday morning. We knew the worst for us was still to come. I know they had severe weather warnings in place but Alfred was not finished with us It is still had not crossed the Coast. ???? This was a new experience for a lot of people and I think many had fallen into the trap.
However we lost power very early Saturday night, about 19:10 pm, which was OK because we were ready for that. But we also lost all communications due to damage to the mobile towers. We were not ready for that. So we had no mobile data, phone signal. It just sat on SOS. We could not text or receive any alerts that were being sent.
So I couldn’t warn anyone I knew that the heavy rain was going to be an issue on Sunday due to an inland trough slowing the system down again as it made its way inland.
TC Alfred was a completely different beast to survive as long as it did. It transitioned from a Tropical Cyclone into a cold core Sub Tropical Cyclone. I didn’t agree with the part that BoM had stated it had weakened to an EX. So I decided to see if anyone else thought the same.
I found a very good post by Anthony Cornelius where he wrote “ Given we're still seeing gale gusts of 70-80km/h, remember that the event isn't over. Oswald and Debbie were both "Ex-tropical cyclones" and they caused huge issues, which is why I tend to avoid the terminology "weakened to an ex-tropical cyclone" and use the phrase "transitioned to an ex-tropical cyclone."
And I totally agree. A lot were taken off guard by the rear flank of the storm and some of those winds, especially In Redcliffe, were over 100 km/h. In many ways it didn’t weaken and I thought that was well written and a better terminology to have used especially for this event so far South of where TC’ are very common.
A couple of houses around here have been written off due to very large trees smashing into them. They will be a total rebuild. Others are reparable. But a fair bit damage. For ourselves we had a few trees snap but nothing really bad, so like Aussie Girl, we are also grateful because only one street over is where the Norfolk Pine destroyed one of the houses.
When the dust settles we should see a better picture of all the damage unfortunately, but hopefully we can learn from it. We could reintroduce the older appendix 4 building code which was pretty strong almost was a cat.2 Cyclone rating for some area in thr Southeast, or even bring in a new and stronger building code that will have a better chance to withstand the severe weather that is now happening.
Thousands of houses at this stage are still without power and thet will not be on until at least Sunday. There is so much carnage out there and it is not an easy fix. I personally think Energex, Ergon, thr tree loppers etc ( response reams) are doing a brilliant job.
I thought that the Emergency Team at Kedron and the Premier and Lord Mayors along with their teams, did a tremendous job. Unfortunately the weakest link was BoM and I hate saying that. But it is what it is and maybe it should be looked at. Due to the storms, floods and Cyclones etc in Queensland, they should have a fully functioning Bureau up here instead of one main headquarters down South. A lot is getting missed unfortunately . I could easily be wrong and will apologise if this is not the case. But something is not working properly within BoM.
Private Meteorological Companies such as Weather Watch, Weatherzone, EWN etc, that are contracted by large Companies and Corporations for events and planning such as construction for example.
To add to the list, the Brisbane Airport and other Airports right around the world, have their own meteorological department, they do a better job, they have too. Plus each aircraft is feeding them up to the minute data in which they adjust their modelling system to reflect the current weather, therefore aircraft are frequently diverting there flight path when required to miss severe turbulence or storms etc.
But I am glad we are through
Edited by user Thursday, 13 March 2025 9:10:13 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Spelling
