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 with the strength of an Atlantic tropical storm.

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.

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More than four million people across Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast in Queensland - as well as in northern NSW towns including Byron Bay and Lismore - are planning for Cyclone Alfred.