<span style="color: #222222;">In Australia, the residents today braced for flash flooding after Tropical Cyclone Jasper tore through the northeast region.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">It also uprooted trees, left tens of thousands without power, and forced evacuations and road closures. Local media reported that about 40,000 properties are without power.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Jasper moved to the far north regions of Queensland state, home to several resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said, the storm, now downgraded to a tropical low, was tracking in a northwesterly direction toward the Gulf of Carpentaria, where it could intensify back to cyclonic strength over the weekend.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Meanwhile, despite the downgrade of the storm, the weather bureau warned residents in cyclone-hit regions that heavy rain is forecast there over the next 24 hours.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">It said, some regions could pick up about 300 mm of rain, raising the prospects of life-threatening flash flooding.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Australia is under the influence of the El Nino phenomenon this summer, which can provoke extreme weather phenomena from wildfires to tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts.</span><br />