‘You can only do what you can do’: Bracing for Alfred’s arrival

Calm but tense scenes are playing out across south-east Queensland as residents brace for Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s arrival.

By late morning Wednesday, dozens of people mill around a self-serve sandbag site in Brisbane’s south, shovels in hand.

As a truck dumped out another load of sand, they dove in — filling their own bags before turning to help others.

The bags are stacked into waiting cars, filling the back seats up to the roof, piling up in truck beds.

For one resident, Sara Hall from Salisbury, the impending storm marks the first time she’s experienced this kind of extreme weather in Brisbane.

“I’m thinking it’s a bit frightening,” she tells the ABC, waiting by a ute only partly packed with sandbags.

“I went to the supermarkets this morning to get some bottled water … and everything’s actually gone.

“I’m planning on getting some more [sandbags] but I think they’re out of bags now, they said they were waiting for more bags to turn up.”

Also stacking bags is Bill Walker and his son, Bede, who already waited at another sandbag station on Tuesday night.

“As we draw closer to it, I feel the anxiety definitely on the road,” he says.

“It was kind of false equivalence because we were looking at the [Bureau of Meteorology] and tracking a system that … was so far removed that it wasn’t even plausible that it was going to reach south-east Queensland.

“We were living in denial.

At the same time at another sandbag site in the next suburb over, cars wrapped around the surrounding streets under police supervision.

Some had been waiting hours — Hendre Burger, coming straight from the gym to load up his maximum 12 bags, had coffee delivered by his wife to the queue.

“She was doing the bread run, coffee run,” he says.

“You understand they’re under the pump, so everybody’s just got to be patient.

“We’re not really fussed about [lining up]. This is my first run and this is going to be my first cyclone also … I’m just being cautious.”

Others waiting in line are gathering sandbags for their businesses, their neighbours and their friends, according to volunteers.

At Brisbane’s largest florist, staffers work to raise everything up to higher shelves and field calls from worried wedding parties and event planners.

Two markers in black ink by the front door of Flowerlovers are a stark reminder.

One by the door marks the water level from 2022.

Another, inked on a wooden beam about head height, marks the water level from the 2011 floods.

“There’s a lot of devastated people,” worker Jo Whitford says.

“They don’t know if their parties are going to go through, they’ve had weddings cancelled.”

Sales manager Kate Kunde said they were “much more prepared” compared to 2022, when more than 20,000 homes were inundated across south-east Queensland in just three days.  

“We’re putting everything to higher ground. Fingers crossed.