Cyclone Alfred is now expected to cross daytime Friday rather than overnight Thursday- Friday.

In preparation for Alfred, Chalmers told Sky News that he was also following official advice, like all Queenslanders.

“Yeah, we’ve been doing all the things that have been part of the advice, you know, bringing everything in,’’ he said.

“Obviously, we’ll fill up the bathtub. We’ll do all of that. Make sure that everything’s in order.”

For residents who do not have a bathtub, filling up sunks and buckets instead is advised.

The official advice on the Queensland Get Ready website tells residents to fill up their bathtubs with safe drinking water in case water gets cut off.

“Our mates up in North Queensland have been doing this for years,’’ the Queensland Get Ready website advice says.

“Filling up the bathtub now while the tap water is still safe to drink and running is what we are recommending.

“That way, you can keep the essentials going, like flushing the toilet, boiling water for a cuppa, or even having a bird bath if the water gets cut off.

“If you don’t have a bathtub, or it’s unsafe to fill up the tub when you have kids - fill up sinks and buckets instead.”

The Treasurer also told Sky News that he wouldn’t be surprised if the damage bill following Cyclone Alfred exceeded $2 billion.

He added that he had spoken to CEOs of major insurers, making sure that they are prepared for the influx of claims.

"I'm confident that the insurance companies know what they need to do, I'm confident that they're putting in place the arrangements to process lots of claims," Chalmers told ABC Radio.

"I'll obviously stay in pretty frequent contact with the CEOs to make sure that's the case," he added.

Chalmers also urged Queenslanders to have all the details necessary to make insurance claims, as well as myGov details in case people need to access any disaster payments that may kick in after the cyclone hits.

“There’s a lot of people in harm’s way here. We’re talking about something like 4.5 million Australians potentially in harm’s way. 1.8 million homes, and we expect there’ll be billions of dollars of damage done by Cyclone Alfred and so the best we can do is prepare and stay informed, make sure that people are accessing all of the relevant information and getting it from trusted sources,” Chalmers told ABC TV.

“Unfortunately, Queenslanders and Australians, more broadly, are no strangers to natural disasters.

“It’s rare for a cyclone to be this far south and to threaten such a huge population area, but we do learn from previous natural disasters.

“We are very grateful to the Australian Defence Force for being in position, to be ready, to help where that’s necessary.”

For more information on how to prepare for Cyclone Alfred, please follow the link to official government advice here: Get Ready Queensland.