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,

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.

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