Australian Cyclone Downgraded, But Brisbane Battles Power Outages and Flash Floods

A tropical cyclone, predicted to hit the east coast of Australia, has been downgraded to a low weather system.

Yesterday, forecasters said gusts of up to 130 kilometres an hour were pushing towards Brisbane - but wind speeds dropped overnight. Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands of homes are without power, and days of heavy rain have caused flash floods. Speaking to South East RadioNews this afternoon, Disaster Relief Specialist and Brisbane resident Matt, had this update from the area: "It's like a once in a hundred year event. We don't really get cyclones this far south in Queensland, but we're very much used to natural disasters, people helping sandbagging etc. There's no power in a lot of parts of the city. There's been lots of heavy wind and rain, Brisbane is pretty susceptible to floods. But, you know, we're Queenslanders, so at the end of the day, we'll just dig in and get it done."