Millions of residents along Australia’s eastern coast are bracing for the arrival of a very slow-moving storm, the strongest tropical cyclone to threaten the region in more than 50 years. Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday as a Category 1 cyclone,

Alfred is forecast to make landfall near Brisbane, the capital of Queensland and Australia’s third largest city.

Thousands of residents in Australia's east were ordered to evacuate ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred's landfall as the storm brought heavy rains, huge waves and strong winds that cut off power, eroded beaches and closed airports.

Residents are stacking sandbags to protect low-lying properties ahead of a tropical cyclone that is forecast to become the first in 51 years to hit the Australian east coast near Brisbane, the nation’s third-most populous city.

Aurimas Mockus, 44, from Lithuania, was stranded for three days in the Coral Sea around 460 miles off Queensland after encountering Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Australia braced for a rare east coast tropical cyclone that is swirling towards Brisbane, its third-most populous city, with authorities urging residents in flood-prone suburbs to evacuate soon.

Schools are closed, public transport has stopped and desperate residents are getting around shortages of sandbags by buying sacks of potting mix as a region of eastern Australia is lashed by wind and rain from a rare approaching tropical cyclone.

Millions of Australians have been warned to prepare for Cyclone Alfred, a dangerous storm that will bring widespread disruption to southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. It's extremely rare to see a cyclone as far south as this which will impact the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.

A rare tropical cyclone veered towards Australia's densely populated eastern coast on Wednesday, sparking emergency warnings, closing hundreds of schools, and threatening to flood thousands of homes.