Residents who prepared for the cyclone now have little to do but wait and see how their efforts will pay off against the rising water.

Residents are stacking sandbags to protect low-lying properties ahead of a tropical cyclone that is forecast to become the first in 51 years to hit the Australian east coast near Brisbane, the nation’s third-most populous city.

Dozens of people have been rescued from floods in chaos stretching across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and parts of NSW.