A violent storm hit the city of Brisbane in northeastern Australia, causing evacuations, power outages and school closures. The death toll has risen to seven deaths. More than 1,400 homes in the Queensland state capital were at risk of flooding, while more than 28,000 were without electricity across the state. The pristine beaches of the Gold and Sunshine coasts, which are the main tourist attractions, are all closed.
“We never expected this rain,” state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a briefing. “The rain is literally falling in buckets.” More than 100 schools will be closed from tomorrow. State relief services said they received 100 calls for help per hour in the past few days.
Among the seven dead in the flood was a 34-year-old man who tried to swim to safety after the waters submerged his car and another whose vehicle was swept away in the most populous state of New South Wales. About 700 people were asked to evacuate from the town of Gympie on Saturday after the Mary River system rose above 22.06 m (72.4 ft) for the city’s worst flood since the 1880s.
Meteorologists said the deluge and thunderstorms will continue until Monday, before starting to subside in Queensland, but moving south into New South Wales, where some at-risk communities in its north-east have been told to evacuate. The risk of fluvial and flash flooding has been “very real overcoming the days,” said Steph Cooke, the state’s emergency services minister. (Reporting and writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Leslie Adler and Clarence Fernandez.