Cyclone lashes Australia’s Queensland

Hundreds of thousands of people in Australia's Queensland state are without power after Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings.

Some 316,540 people were without power in Queensland's southeast, where the Gold Coast city was the worst-hit area with more than 112,000 without power due to the storm system, energy distributor Energex said in a statement.
The storm reached the Queensland coast on Saturday as a "tropical low" after 16 days as a cyclone, prompting preparations by millions of residents. The state capital Brisbane was spared the brunt of the storm, which was also felt in southern neighbour New South Wales.