Following the landfall of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the storm lingered during Sunday and overnight into early Monday dropping incredible rainfall totals across Brisbane City and the Gold Coast region of southeast Queensland. This was the final outcome for the storm event.
Major flooding ensured and significant portions of the local population were without power.
The storm dropped incredible rainfall totals localized to the Brisbane metropolitan area, north towards the Sunshine coast and south across Gold Coast city.
Rainfall totals reached or exceeded 300 mm for the 24 hours to 9 am Monday. In particular for Monday morning:
- Several suburban areas received over 300 mm of rain with the highest total being Green Hills Res Alert with 361 mm.
- At the official weather station site for Brisbane - 275.2 mm fell. Add the 109.8 mm for Saturday morning, the final 2 day total tops out at 385 mm.
It is suggested that this was Brisbane’s wettest 24 hour period since 314 mm fell on January 26 1974 (To 9 am). Or:
- The fifth wettest day on record.
- The heaviest March rainfall event since 1908.
Falls of 100 to 250 mm fell across a region north towards the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. The heaviest Sunday totals exceeded those that fell across Brisbane including:
- Diamond Valley Alert - 433mm.
- West Wombyne Alert - 391 mm.
- Palmwood Sports Ground - 376 mm.
During Monday and Tuesday, conditions eased and flood levels began to recede across affected rivers. The clean up and rebuilding has commenced but this will take considerable time.
The repairs and rebuilding that is required is now identified as being an insurance catastrophe and the second incident for early 2025 for the state of Queensland (The first being the Townsville and Ingham floods of early February 2025). To date:
- Up to 315,000 customers were left without power midday Sunday although most power outages are now restored.
- Major flooding impacted Ipswich west of Brisbane with the Bremer River reaching major flood levels on Monday / early Tuesday.
- Insurance claims are rising and Standards and Poor’s Global Ratings suggest insurance claims will exceed $2 billion. It can be expected that the clean up and repairs will cost billions.
The cleanup operation will take considerable time and final insurance costs and or losses are still not fully known. It is known that over 34,000 claims have been made which is expected to continue rising over coming days or weeks.
What is generally known, if the Townsville and Ingham floods of February 2025 are considered and now this event, it would be expected that the two events have exceeded $5 billion in total.
The final rainfall figures are shown in the rainfall plots for Brisbane City for both Saturday and Sunday (To 9 am for both days Saturday and Sunday are attached) which is something that is rarely seen for Brisbane.