Flooding rains will continue for days to lash a region of the Australian east coast even though it avoided the destructive winds of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years, officials said on Saturday. One person was confirmed dead and several were injured.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred had been expected to become the first cyclone to cross the Australian coast near the Queensland state capital, Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, since 1974.
But it weakened Saturday to a tropical low, which is defined as carrying sustained winds of less than 63 kph (39 mph), then came to a near-standstill off the Brisbane coast for several hours.
The cyclone’s remnant is forecast to track west across the Australian mainland in the coming days bringing heavy rain, Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy said.
“The real threat now is from that locally heavy-to-intense rainfall, which may lead to flash and riverine flooding,” Collopy told reporters.
Cyclones are common in Queensland’s tropical north but are rare in the state’s temperate and densely populated southeast corner that borders New South Wales state.
A 61-year-old man who disappeared in a flooded river near the New South Wales town of Dorrigo was confirmed the first casualty of the crisis when his body was recovered on Saturday, police said.
Several defense personnel were injured when two military trucks involved in the emergency response collided at the town of Tregeagle in New South Wales on Saturday, police said.
Nine Network television and other media reported that 36 people were injured, eight seriously, with two people trapped in the trucks.
A woman sustained minor injuries when an apartment building lost its roof in the Queensland border city of Gold Coast on Friday, police said. The woman was one of 21 people who were evacuated from the building.
A couple sustained minor injuries when a tree crashed through the ceiling of their Gold Coast bedroom during strong winds and rain on Thursday night, officials said.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said 330,000 homes and businesses had lost power due to the storm since Thursday. No other natural disaster had created a bigger blackout in the state’s history. New South Wales reported as many as 45,000 premises without electricity on Saturday. But tens of thousands had been reconnected by late in the day, officials said.
Rivers were flooding in Queensland and New South Wales after days of heavy rain, the meteorology bureau said. The missing man was the only failure among 36 flood rescues carried out by emergency teams in northern New South Wales in recent days, most involving vehicles attempting to cross floodwaters, police said.
