A tropical cyclone weakened to a tropical low weather system on Saturday as it approached Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, bringing flooding rain that was expected to lash the coastal region for days.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred had been expected to become the first cyclone to cross the east Australian coast near the Queensland state capital since 1974.
On Friday, it was moving west towards Brisbane with sustained winds near its centre of 59mph and gusting to 81mph.
But it weakened early on Saturday to a tropical low, which is defined as carrying sustained winds of less than 39mph.
A giant golf ball sign is seen fallen outside a mini golf complex at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast (Dave Hunt/AAP/AP)
The system was expected to cross the coast north of Brisbane between Bribie Island and the Sunshine Coast region on Saturday, Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy said.
“Heavy-to-locally intense rainfall leading to flash and riverine flooding now becomes the major concern as the ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred moves inland,“ he told reporters in Brisbane.
Cyclones are common in Queensland’s tropical north, but are rare in the state’s temperate and densely populated southeast corner which borders New South Wales state.
A 61-year-old man remained missing after being swept away in a flooded river near the town of Dorrigo in New South Wales. Another woman sustained minor injuries when an apartment building lost its roof at the Queensland border city of Gold Coast on Friday, police said. The woman was one of 21 people who were evacuated from the building.
Almost 300,000 homes and businesses lost power on both sides of the border, mostly at Gold Coast, which recorded the strongest gusts of 66mph on Friday night.
Power lines, homes and cars were damaged by falling trees across the region over Friday night.
Children take shelter from waves behind a breakwall in the Coolangatta area of Gold Coast (Dave Hunt/AAP Image/AP)
Queensland premier David Crisafulli said he was grateful the risk had passed of the storm crossing the coast at high tide, which would have flooded coastal homes.
“Our message this morning to Queenslanders is firstly one of gratitude,” he said.
“To have no homes reported… that have had storm tide inundation is really a tremendous, tremendous result,” he added.
Mr Crisafulli said the almost 250,000 homes and businesses without power on the Queensland side of the border on Saturday was the state’s largest blackout in a decade.
In New South Wales, 43,000 homes and businesses were without power from the border south to the city of Grafton, energy minister Penny Sharpe said. Grafton is 165 miles south of the Queensland border by road.
“We’re still in the middle of this event and there is still wind and there is still extreme rain,” she told reporters.
A fallen tree lies on a damaged house in Gold Coast (Dave Hunt/AAP Image/AP)
“Having electrical workers in that space is very dangerous. What is occurring is that we’re waiting until it is safe to do so.”
Rivers were flooding in Queensland and New South Wales after days of heavy rain, the meteorology bureau said.
More than 19,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying homes, officials said.
The Sunshine Coast, a local government area popular with tourists 60 miles north of Brisbane city centre, was preparing for increasing rain late on Saturday and the associated risks of sudden flooding as the weather system approached, mayor Rosanna Natoli said.
“On the Sunshine Coast, we are really breathing a sigh of relief because we are not seeing right now the same impact as our neighbours to the south,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“In terms of our coastal impacts, we have a lot of erosion on our beaches, but we have fared far better than the people to our south.”