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

Hundreds of thousands of people are under a blackout in Queensland and flood warnings remain in place across New South Wales after ex-Cyclone Alfred left a trail of destruction along Australia’s east coast.

Cyclones typically form in tropical northern Australia, but Alfred is hitting the cooler centre of the eastern coast. The last cyclone to impact Brisbane was Cyclone Zoe in 1974, which caused severe flooding.