Wild Weather Hits Australia: Woman Dead, 120,000 without Power 

Anglers retreat from a pier on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne on September 2, 2024, as winds of more than 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour lash the region, leaving about 150,000 people without power. (AFP)
Anglers retreat from a pier on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne on September 2, 2024, as winds of more than 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour lash the region, leaving about 150,000 people without power. (AFP)
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Wild Weather Hits Australia: Woman Dead, 120,000 without Power 

Anglers retreat from a pier on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne on September 2, 2024, as winds of more than 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour lash the region, leaving about 150,000 people without power. (AFP)
Anglers retreat from a pier on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne on September 2, 2024, as winds of more than 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour lash the region, leaving about 150,000 people without power. (AFP)

A woman has died and more than 120,000 were left without power after high winds and heavy rain hit southern Australia, authorities said on Monday.

There was widespread damage in the states of Victoria and Tasmania, while a 63-year-old woman was killed after a tree fell on a cabin at a holiday park on the border between Victoria and New South Wales, emergency services said.

"It's a sad and tragic set of circumstances for the woman's family and my thoughts and sympathy go out to her and the emergency services who responded to that incident," Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan told a news conference.

Victoria's State Emergency Services received over 2,800 call outs overnight, mostly for fallen trees and building damage, she added.

At least 121,000 remained without power on Monday, Allan said, down from as many as 180,000 in the early hours of the morning.

Weather warnings remain in place for much of the state's southeast coast, as winds of almost 150 km per hour (93 mph) lashed the state overnight.

A Victoria state government advisory on Monday told people to avoid coastal areas because of dangerous waves, unstable land in cliff areas, and flooding in low-lying areas. The southern island state of Tasmania has also been hit by wild weather, with thousands left without power on Sunday.

"We've seen another wild night of weather across the state with extensive destruction," Mick Lowe, executive director of Tasmania's State Emergency Services, told a news conference on Monday.

Extreme weather events are common for many Australians.

The storms across the south of the country follow days of unseasonably high winter temperatures of almost 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in New South Wales' capital Sydney.



Shanshan, Downgraded from Typhoon, Leaves 7 Dead, Damage in Japan

 Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)
Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)
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Shanshan, Downgraded from Typhoon, Leaves 7 Dead, Damage in Japan

 Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)
Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)

Tropical cyclone Shanshan, downgraded from a typhoon, left seven people dead and widespread damage as it churned off the Pacific coast of central Japan on Sunday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency continued to warn of landslides, floods and rising water levels in rivers in western and eastern Japan, citing increased risks due to ground loosening from record-breaking rainfall since the storm hit the southern coast on Thursday.

On the Pacific side of eastern Japan, unstable atmospheric conditions caused by rain clouds around the tropical cyclone and the inflow of warm, moist air from a Pacific high-pressure system were causing heavy rain and thunderstorms, the agency said.

Some Shinkansen "bullet train" services remained disrupted, but Tokyo-Osaka service, suspended in some sections, will resume on Sunday evening, Central Japan Railway said.

The seventh death from Shanshan was reported in Fukuoka in southwestern Japan on Sunday, Kyodo news agency said.

Before that, the typhoon had crept eastward, drenching large areas with torrential rain, triggering landslide and flood warnings hundreds of kilometers from the storm's center.