SYDNEY – Tens of thousands of people in Australia’s Queensland state were without power on Jan 26 after a tropical cyclone hit overnight, bringing damaging winds and heavy rain.
Tropical cyclone Kirrily, a category two system, made landfall late on Jan 25 along the coast bordering the Great Barrier Reef near the tourist town of Townsville, before being downgraded to a tropical low on Jan 26.
Australia is in the grips of an El Nino weather event, which is typically associated with extreme phenomena such as cyclones, wildfires, droughts and heatwaves.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that 64,000 people were without power on Jan 26 due to the storm.
Ergon Energy spokeswoman Emma Oliveri said most power outages were in Townsville, adding that it was too early to say when power would be restored.
Category two cyclones are three rungs away from the most dangerous and can cause significant damage to trees, caravans and crops, and break boats from their moorings.
The nation’s weather forecaster had said Kirrily was likely to bring heavy rain with possible damaging winds to parts of northern Queensland on Jan 26.
“Winds with peak gusts of around 90kmh are possible,” the weather forecaster said on its website.
Mr Miles said the risk of flooding was high, as “there is a lot of rain still to come”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said military personnel were on standby to assist with the cleanup from Kirrily.
“The people of far north Queensland have copped a lot in recent times,” Mr Albanese said in Canberra, according to a transcript.
Kirrily was the second tropical cyclone in the area since December, when cyclone Jasper caused widespread regional damage.
Meanwhile, parts of Queensland and southern neighbour New South Wales were on heatwave alert, with temperatures in the high 40s degrees possible on Jan 26 for some regional areas of Queensland, the weather forecaster warned.
In New South Wales capital Sydney, the temperature in the city’s west was forecast to hit 40 deg C, more than nine degrees above the average January maximum, according to weather forecaster data. REUTERS
