A tropical cyclone weakened to a tropical low weather system on Saturday as it approached Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city. The storm, Tropical Cyclone Alfred, was expected to bring heavy-to-locally intense rainfall and flash flooding to the region for days.
The system crossed the coast north of Brisbane between Bribie Island and the Sunshine Coast region later Saturday. Heavy rain is forecasted in Queensland and New South Wales due to the prolonged rainfall, with many homes and businesses losing power across both states.
More than 330,000 homes and businesses were affected by the outages, with 291,000 premises in Queensland and 45,000 in New South Wales losing electricity. The storm also caused significant damage to power lines, homes, and cars, particularly on Gold Coast, where strong gusts of up to 107 kph were recorded.
Despite the severe weather, officials expressed gratitude that no major flooding occurred along coastal areas during high tide. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said he was relieved that no homes suffered storm-tide inundation.
The Sunshine Coast is preparing for increasing rain and associated risks of sudden flooding as the weather system approaches. It’s unusual but not unprecedented for a tropical cyclone to threaten Brisbane, with several weak storms brushing near the area in the 1970s and other instances reported in recent years.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/cyclone-alfred-australia-brisbane-aa9277a117903b40e1c1355679a151db