Residents who prepared for the cyclone now have little to do but wait and see how their efforts will pay off against the rising water.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Australia's Queensland state are without power after Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings. Some 316,

Over the weekend, residents of Brisbane, Australia, were bracing for the impact of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The storm was downgraded to a tropical low, and made landfall on the mainland on Saturday. It was the first storm of its kind in the area in 51 years.

Residents are stacking sandbags to protect low-lying properties ahead of a tropical cyclone that is forecast to become the first in 51 years to hit the Australian east coast near Brisbane, the nation’s third-most populous city.

Dozens of people have been rescued from floods in chaos stretching across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and parts of NSW.