My message today, and we do have a bit of rain left to go, is overwhelmingly you must always put your safety first. That's number one in a disaster. Property can be replaced, people can't."

Cyclone Alfred weakened into a tropical low Saturday but still threatened to unleash major floods on swollen rivers as it approached the rain and wind-lashed eastern coast of Australia.

Cyclone Alfred weakened into a tropical low Saturday as it neared the rain and wind-lashed eastern coast of Australia where hundreds of thousands of properties were without power. A "staggering" number of more than 239,