Cook Islander Archie Atiau says the impact of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which affected South East Queensland and the New South Wales North Coast, Australia, has been severe.

TC Alfred was a powerful, long-lived and erratic tropical cyclone that originated from a tropical low in the Coral Sea on 20 February. One fatality has been reported, with four others unaccounted for and several injured, according to Wikipedia.

Speaking to Cook Islands News from Brisbane yesterday, Atiau said the weather had cleared, the sun was out and they were now in the clean-up process.

He said they were unaware if any Cook Islanders had been affected by TC Alfred.

“There has been a lot of surface flooding, which has caused a lot of road closures, and access to a lot of other areas and places where people need to get things from,” Atiau said.

“In the last couple of nights, it’s just been damaging winds and really heavy downpour. It’s caused a widespread flooding throughout Brisbane, and a lot of the low-lying areas in particular. 

“It’s really affected a lot of those (low-lying) areas, and just getting access in and out of places. A lot of homes have been flooded in, inundated with water. 

“But as far as we’re concerned, I don’t know of any Cook Islanders that have been affected at this stage, or just one at a time.”
According to Atiau, the Cook Islands Queensland Council has been active, and president Kevin Dando has posted on social media to ensure people are keeping in contact and has reached out to those without access to communication.
Atiau said he and his family were fortunate to live on high ground, but the rain affected their power supply.

“I guess it’s just trying to get to that recovery point of cleaning up, getting everything back up to how it was before.”

Cook Islands Council of Queensland Inc president Dando says the experience has reminded them of growing up in the Cook Islands, where they would prepare emergency packs, such as radios.

He added that, because of the early warnings, they were able to prepare, and as a community development officer, disseminating information from the main sources to the community was important.

In an interview with PMN News, Dando added: “It was about getting the information out as soon as possible, constant updates from emergency services and having the early warning.”