One person was missing, hundreds of thousands of homes were without power and communities were at risk of major flooding in eastern Australia on Saturday after the weakened storm formerly known as Tropical Cyclone Alfred neared the coast, still bringing heavy rains and dangerous winds.
Australia’s third-largest city, Brisbane, which had been in the cyclone’s path, appeared to have mostly escaped the storm’s impact. But the slow-churning system combined with high tides was causing widespread flooding down the coast in the nearby state of New South Wales.
Chris Minns, the state’s premier, said crews were searching for a man reported missing in the small town of Dorrigo, which was pummeled with more than 10 inches of rain overnight after days of heavy downpour.
“This emergency is not over,” he said. “The rivers are full, the rain is continuing and expected to keep falling in the days ahead, and wind conditions are very high and extreme.”
The police said the missing man had been driving a car that was swept away. He managed to get out of the car and onto a tree but was again overtaken by floodwaters before emergency workers were able to get to him.
More than 300,000 customers lost power in areas affected by the storm, according to the ABC, the country’s main public broadcaster. Emergency responders in New South Wales said they had carried out 30 flood rescues in the previous 24 hours, mostly of people in cars who had tried to drive through inundated streets.
Dozens of communities remained under evacuation orders in an area known as the Northern Rivers region, including parts of Lismore, a small city about eight hours north of Sydney. Lismore was inundated in a devastating flood in 2022 when the waters rose six feet higher than the previous record, killing 22 people.
Forecasters said Saturday afternoon that there was a danger that heavy rainfall would lead to floodwaters overtopping levees in the city.
Mr. Minns said officials were gearing up for a swift recovery in the storm’s aftermath, naming a point person to coordinate the efforts. In the 2022 floods, the authorities’ response was criticized by residents as inadequate and delayed, leaving people to take rescues and recovery into their own hands.
