rewrite this title Cyclone Alfred downgraded to ex-tropical cyclone as NSW cities flood

Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Speaking in Lismore on Friday afternoon, NSW Premier Chris Minns said thousands of people had already left following advice from the SES.“If you’re one of the few people remaining in your house, and you’re in an evacuation area, you’re one of the only people in your street left, and you will literally be by yourself,” Minns said.Loading“Please follow these evacuation orders unless you have to stay off the roads.”Meteorologist Helen Reid from the Bureau of Meteorology told ABC Radio Brisbane that the concern wasn’t Alfred’s wind speeds but the deluge of rain being dumped on already inundated regions.“Still a lot of rainfall to come through. Those floods are still going to be a problem, and we are also still going to be seeing those waves crashing in,” Reid said.“Over the next few hours, the impacts are still going to be the same. If anything, the only thing we’ve lost is that consistency of gale strength winds. We will still have winds that will be damaging or even destructive.”Over a quarter of a million homes are without power across Queensland and NSW. Nearly 240,000 of those outages are in South East Queensland alone.As of 8 am on Saturday, Alfred was 65 kilometres north-east of Brisbane and 40 kilometres south-east of Maroochydore and was moving at 9km/h. It was previously forecast to hit Brisbane’s CBD but will now hit north of the city.The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest update, current at 7am on Saturday (AEDT), forecast Alfred to cross the mainland around midday on Saturday.The cyclone swell caused a whale carcass, which had been buried on a beach in Mooball Beach, in Tweed in NSW’s north coast, to wash ashore earlier on Saturday morning.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.