QUEENSLAND - Wild weather has blacked out more than 300,000 homes and businesses on Australia’s east coast, officials said on March 9, with one driver confirmed dead and a dozen troops injured.
Hundreds of thousands of people were also without power, after ex-tropical cyclone Alfred brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings on swollen rivers along a 400km stretch of the coast straddling south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales.
Utility companies said about 310,000 properties in south-east Queensland and at least another 16,000 in north-east New South Wales were still without power on March 9.
“Customers need to be prepared to be without power for several days,” Queensland’s Essential Energy said. “The biggest challenges to getting power back on will be rising flood waters and swollen creek beds, fallen vegetation and mud slides impacting access roads,” it said in a statement.
About 14,600 people are under emergency warnings related to the weather system in New South Wales, the state’s emergency services said.
“In the last 24 hours, 17 incidents have occurred as a result of people driving into flood waters,” said emergency services deputy commissioner Damien Johnson.
“Not only is it a danger to yourself and your family, it is also dangerous as well for the volunteers, the emergency services workers that need to rescue you.”
A 61-year-old man’s body was found on March 8 after his four-wheel-drive pick-up truck was swept off a bridge into a river in northern New South Wales.
He had escaped from the pick-up and tried in vain to cling to a tree branch in the river before disappearing into the rapid waters on March 7, the police said.
The ex-tropical cyclone reached the Queensland coast on March 9 as a “tropical low” after 16 days as a cyclone, prompting preparations by millions of residents. State capital Brisbane was spared the brunt of the storm’s impact, which was also felt in southern neighbour New South Wales state.
Queensland will decide on March 9 whether around 1,000 state schools, closed due to the bad weather, will reopen the following day, said state Premier David Crisafulli.
“Where it’s safe to do so, schools will reopen with the exception of the Gold Coast, where there remains some significant damage. Power loss and issues with transport,” he said in televised comments from Brisbane.
“One thing’s remained consistent, and that is the community spirit and the resolve,” he said.
- Perilous weather -
In a separate incident on March 8, police said 13 troops were injured and taken to hospital when two army trucks rolled over during a deployment to clear roads near the flood-prone New South Wales city of Lismore.
Twelve soldiers were still in hospital on March 9 with two of them in a serious condition, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told a news conference.
“We wish a speedy recovery for all of those young soldiers,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on March 9 that the “situation in Queensland and northern New South Wales remains very serious due to flash-flooding and heavy winds”.
“Heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts, and coastal surf impacts are expected to continue over coming days,” Mr Albanese said in Canberra, in remarks televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
The nation’s Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall that could spark flash flooding was developing on March 9 and could impact Brisbane as well as Queensland regional centres of Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gympie, it said.
Damaging winds with gusts of around 90kmh were also possible in the state, the bureau said on its website.
“It is now just a weak low as it continues moving further inland through southeast Queensland bringing lots of rain,” bureau meteorologist Dean Narramore said, referring to the ex-cyclone.
Brisbane Airport said on X that it re-opened on March 9, but warned that “ongoing weather may affect the schedule”. REUTERS, AFP
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