A man died as massive downpours, vicious winds and flash floods submerged streets, toppled trees and power lines and caused to army trucks to crash.

Before and after pictures of Australia’s east coast show the true scale of devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Alfred. What was once a paradise for surfers, with golden, sunlit sands, became a battleground as waves as high as ‘three or four-storey buildings’ slammed into the coastline.