Here’s what we know so far about when electricity and mobile phone services will come back on, and when schools, airports and workplaces will reopen
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred is yet to make landfall – and authorities are warning people in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales not to become complacent about the risks of flooding and heavy rainfall.
The system has disrupted services, from electricity to airports. Here’s what we know about when essential infrastructure and services will begin to return to normal.
On Saturday afternoon, more than 300,000 homes and businesses were without electricity. This included about 280,000 locations in south-east Queensland and 36,000 in NSW.
Authorities have urged people to be patient and to not expect their power to be restored in the short term. The NSW energy minister, Penny Sharpe, said it could be several days because the government did not want to put electricity teams in danger.
“We can not risk the lives of those workers,” Sharpe said. “But know that we are doing everything we can, as quickly as we can.”
In Queensland, some people may need to wait longer. The chief operating officer of Energex, Paul Jordan, said it would take longer than a week to fully restore power. He said his teams were prioritising hospitals and critical infrastructure.
“There’s still strong winds, there’s vegetation that’s been damaged and is now falling,” Jordan told Channel Nine. “We’ll do the damage assessment, and over the next day or two we’ll get a far better idea.”
The Gold Coast airport remains closed, as it has been for several days. But the acting mayor, Donna Gates, said it was expected to open on Sunday.
“I understand there’s a fair bit of work to do at the airport, checking things outside and inside, so they are not yet ready to accept passengers,” Gates said on Saturday afternoon. “But the airport will be operational once the power is restored.”
Qantas told customers it was working to “progressively restart domestic and international flights” at Brisbane, Gold Coast and Maroochydore airports from 6am on Sunday.
“Our teams are working to help customers travel in and out of south-east Queensland and northern NSW as safely and as quickly as possible and continue to work closely with the state and federal government and the relevant local airport authorities,” a Qantas spokesperson said on Saturday afternoon.
Virgin Australia said: “We expect to resume flying around 10am local time in Brisbane on Sunday. For the Gold Coast, we expect flying to commence no earlier than 12pm local time Sunday.”
“We are still determining the timing for the resumption of operations at Ballina and Sunshine Coast airports based on evolving weather advice,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said. “Guests should monitor the status of their flight on our website.”
The NSW education department has told more than 250 public schools in the north of the state to stay closed on Monday, with dozens of independent schools also closed. The government has a list of all affected schools online.
The NSW government is expected to update parents and families later about whether schools will remain closed on Tuesday.
In Queensland more than 1,000 schools were closed on Thursday and Friday because of the weather. The state’s premier, David Crisafulli, said an announcement would be made on Sunday about whether the schools will open on Monday.
“We will give you the opportunity to plan the day ahead,” Crisafulli said. “We will update Queenslanders about what is happening with schools tomorrow, for Monday. That will be done in a clear, calm and measured way”.
On Saturday afternoon, Optus confirmed 270 of its mobile sites had lost connection due to power failures in northern NSW and south-east Queensland.
It is not known exactly how many people were affected, but Optus said it involved “a large number of customers”.
The company does not know “how long it will take to resolve services” but it is prioritising locations near evacuation centres.
This will depend on conditions in each area. In Queensland, emergency warnings have been lowered to watch and act levels. This allows people to move around as they normally would. But authorities are still urging people to be careful and avoid flooded regions.
Parts of northern NSW are still forecast to receive heavy rainfall, with the potential for flooding.
Read more of Guardian Australia’s Tropical Cyclone Alfred coverage: