Cyclone Alfred has severe winds and floods beaten the east coast of Australia, leaving parts of Queensland and New South Wales without electricity.
On Tuesday, Australian energy companies continued efforts to restore electricity to more than 120,000 houses and businesses affected by the storm. The AFP reported that the cyclone brought strong winds and heavy rains over the weekend, causing extensive outage throughout the region. The extreme weather has claimed a life.
While the conditions along the coast between Queensland and New South Wales have declined, the loss is important. As of Tuesday morning, around 118,000 properties in Queensland were still without electricity. The regional energy provider Energex aims to restore service to 95% of the affected customers by Friday.
Energex also reported that at the peak of the crisis, more than 450,000 customers in Queensland lost electricity-to enter a new record for weather-related outage in the state. Meanwhile, in New South Wales, about 7,600 houses and businesses live without electricity.
Officials had earlier warned that the extreme weather could affect around three million people, especially in Brisbane and surrounding areas. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanis described the situation as “very serious” as the cyclone contacted last week.
