Sydney : Hundreds of thousands of people in Australia’s Queensland state were without power on Sunday after Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings.
Some 316,540 people were without power in Queensland’s southeast, where the Gold Coast city was the worst-hit area with more than 112,000 without power due to the storm system, energy distributor Energex said in a statement.
The storm reached the Queensland coast on Saturday as a “tropical low” after 16 days as a cyclone, prompting preparations by millions of residents. The state capital Brisbane was spared the brunt of the storm, which was also felt in southern neighbour New South Wales.
The nation’s Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall that could spark flash flooding was developing on Sunday and could impact Brisbane as well as the Queensland regional centres of Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gympie, it said.
Damaging winds with gusts of around 90 kph (60 mph) were also possible in the state, the bureau said on its website.
