Swathes of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales had been on alert for flash flooding and damaging winds as greater than 330,000 buildings had been with out energy on Sunday morning attributable to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
After the downgraded cyclone made landfall simply north of Brisbane in a single day as a tropical low, the Bureau of Meteorology was nonetheless predicting as much as 700mm of rain and harmful gusts to hit the area via to Monday.
The hazardous outlook adopted a string of tragedies.
On Sunday morning the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, confirmed {that a} 61-year-old man swept off a bridge by fast-moving flood waters close to the NSW city of Dorrigo on Friday had died, along with his physique recovered late on Saturday.
The person’s ute was swept into flood waters at Megan, about 25km north of Dorrigo.
On Saturday two army vans, every carrying 16 Australian defence power personnel who had been serving to road-clearing efforts, crashed close to Lismore.
The primary truck rolled, then the second did the identical because it swerved in an try to keep away from the primary, officers mentioned.
Of the 32 Brisbane-based ADF troopers onboard the automobiles, 13 had been injured , six critically.
“Everyone at the scene did their best to look after their mates and I am hugely grateful to emergency services and healthcare workers for the first aid and ongoing care,” Albanese mentioned.
He added: “These men and women are heroes who were on their way to help people in need. They were doing this at a time when some of their own families were bearing the brunt of Alfred. We will never take for granted the enormous sacrifice our soldiers make for us.”
On Sunday about 315,000 buildings in south-east Queensland and 16,000 in NSW had been with out energy.
The bureau warned of swollen rivers and flash flooding, with extra rain looming.
“Today is all about the rainfall that’s likely to be experienced around south-east Queensland and far north-eastern NSW,” mentioned a senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore.
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Remoted rainfalls of as much as 400mm had been anticipated, with one other trough from central Australia dragging the low-pressure system inland over northern NSW.
“By Wednesday, the weather system will finally shift all this wet weather to coastal parts of NSW and clearing mid to late week while southeast Queensland should start to see conditions easing from persistent rainfall on Monday,” Narramore mentioned.
Brisbane’s suburban creeks started to spill over on Sunday after an evening of heavy wind and rain.
Saturday evening introduced way more extreme climate than Friday. Toowoomba was hit by almost 100km/h winds.
Main flooding was anticipated alongside the Wilsons river, which runs via Lismore.
Main flood warnings remained in place for the Tweed, Richmond, Wilsons, Clarence and Bellinger rivers.
Lismore’s deputy mayor, Jeri Corridor, mentioned about 600 individuals had sought shelter in evacuation centres, and all eyes had been on town’s levees presumably overflowing.
Residents have been with out energy and water for 72 hours.
– with AAP
