# Ex-Cyclone Alfred reaches mainland as heavy rain and damaging floods expected

Communities in two states are facing a massive clean-up task, with more than 330,000 homes and businesses left without power on Sunday morning, as residents of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales remain on watch for damaging floods and significant rainfall.

Emergency service workers are also treating 13 people injured after two Australian defence force vehicles – which were deployed to help local communities with rising flood waters – collided on a road near the NSW town of Lismore.

On Saturday afternoon, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said of the 36 defence personnel being treated after the collision some were “seriously injured”. In a joint statement with the defence minister, Richard Marles, he said the “ADF heroes were on their way to help Australians in need”.

Earlier in the day, Albanese urged people not to drive through flood waters unless authorised to do so and warned people against becoming complacent after the weather system was downgraded.

“If it’s flooded, forget it,” the prime minister said. “The government, of course, stands ready to activate disaster payments for both south-east Queensland and New South Wales.”

Power was restored to Gold Coast university hospital late on Saturday afternoon, after relying on generators throughout the day. The federal government has sent six generators to Lismore.

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, said around half of all traffic lights on the Gold Coast were offline late on Saturday afternoon. He said many supermarkets would reopen on Sunday, when airlines are also hoping to resume flights. Trains will not run in Brisbane on Sunday.

In Queensland, the chief operating officer of Energex, Paul Jordan, said the full restoration of power would take longer than a week. He said his teams were prioritising hospitals and critical infrastructure.

Crisafulli, who described the power outage as the biggest in more than a decade, said about 30,000 connections were restored over 90 minutes on Saturday afternoon.

Essential Energy, the NSW-owned electricity infrastructure provider, said debris – including fallen trees and vegetation – would have to be removed before power lines could be assessed and repaired.

The NSW minister for energy, Penny Sharpe, urged people to be “patient” while authorities worked to restore power.

“We cannot risk the lives of those workers,” Sharpe said. “But know that we are doing everything we can, as quickly as we can.”

About 740 people in northern NSW had taken refuge across 21 evacuation centres by 10am on Saturday, with 1,110 people registered to use them. About 20,000 people were subject to evacuation warnings in the region.

## Related Stories

* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 

## More on this story

* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
```