Couple Shocked by Apocalyptic Scene at Grocery Story Amid Cyclone Warning

As Australians brace themselves for a rare tropical cyclone to make landfall on the country’s east coast, one family in the New South Wales state were met by a “scary” sight of empty shelves at a local supermarket in the town of Byron Bay.

Katie Bunton, a Canadian mom living in Mullumbimby in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, captured a scene of “apocalypse” at the grocery store in a video posted on her TikTok account @ktbunton. The clip has amassed over 160,000 views since it was shared on Tuesday.

Bunton and her family were at the grocery store to do some “doomsday prepping” ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which will be the first cyclone to cross the coast near Brisbane since Cyclone Zoe hit the Gold Coast in 1974, with more than 4 million people in the cyclone’s path, according to The Associated Press.

“This video was taken two days ago in Byron Bay, where our children go to school,” Bunton told Newsweek on Thursday.

“All of the shelves in Byron and surrounding [area] are emptying fast,” Bunton said, adding that Bunnings, a hardware retail store, “is out of almost all of the supplies that could be helpful including gas, BBQs, torches and rope.”

The viral clip shows the couple picking up their two kids from school before heading to a supermarket. Shortly after they step into the grocery store with a shopping cart, Bunton says: “Are you kidding me? You guys…apocalypse s*** here, what is going on?” The camera pans across to show rows of empty shelves everywhere.

Cyclone Alfred, a category 2 tropical cyclone, is “slowly moving towards the southeast Queensland coast,” the country’s Bureau of Meteorology noted on Thursday.

“The center of Alfred is expected to cross the coast Friday night or early Saturday morning,” most likely between the Noosa area of Brisbane, and Coolangatta, a suburb of Queensland’s Gold Coast, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday.

Warnings have been issued for the area spanning from “Double Island Point in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina but not including Grafton,” the bureau said.

Heavy, intense rainfall, which “may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding,” is expected to take place near and to the south of the cyclone’s center as Alfred approaches and crosses the coast, the government weather body warned.

“Due to the very slow moving nature of the cyclone, there is a very high risk of significant impacts due to widespread heavy rainfall over the coming days,” the bureau added.

“Damaging” wind gusts of up to around 75 miles per hour are expected to develop along the southeast Queensland and northeastern New South Wales coastal communities, while “destructive” wind gusts of up to about 96 miles per hour may develop near and to the south of the center of the cyclone as it approaches the coast, the government body said.

Bunton, who has lived in Australia for five years, recently moved to Mullumbimby into the home of her mother-in-law, who “lives in the flood plain, which is scary,” she said, recalling the floods in the Northern Rivers region back in 2022.

“This is the first time I’ve had to prepare for a cyclone,” Bunton said, noting that Canada isn’t exactly known for hurricane weather, so she’s “better at preparing for snowstorms.”

“Everyone took all the food,” Bunton is heard saying in the viral TikTok video, as the clip shows two containers of eggs left amid empty boxes, while her kids are shown crawling across the empty shelves.

The couple eventually managed to fill up their shopping cart with some boxes of coconut water and other food/drink items as well as toilet paper. They also made a stop to a butchers to stock up on some meat.

The video later shows eerie grey skies and rainfall over a pool area, while a voice off-camera says “the skies looking scary…and so it begins,” as the clip ends.

Do you have a weather-related video or story to share? Let us know via life@newsweek.com and your story could be featured on Newsweek.