SYDNEY: A violent storm ripped through picturesque tourist hubs in eastern Australia, leaving one person dead and causing damage comparable to that wrought by a cyclone, officials said Monday.

Sunday's storm tore the roofs off scores of homes, felled trees and power lines that flattened cars and sent corrugated iron sheeting and other debris flying through the air.

"It looks like a bomb - like there's been a great big bomb go off in our street," said Davina Thomas, a resident of The Gap, near the eastern Queensland city of Brisbane.

"We still can't get out of our street, there's power lines down, there's trees across the road and all we can hear is sirens. It's terrible, my daughter's had her roof blown off (her house), it's in the pool now," she told local radio.

Electricity was cut to around 230,000 homes and businesses as thunderstorms, flash flooding, hailstones and destructive winds battered southeast Queensland, home to the prime summer tourist destinations of the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

More than 56,000 homes were still without power on Monday after what some experts described as the worst storms in 25 years, power company officials said.

"The only thing that has been anything like it is Cyclone Larry," said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, referring to the storm that caused A$1 billion (US$645 million) in damage when it hit north Queensland in March 2006.

A 20-year-old man died when he was swept away while photographing the dramatic weather from a stormwater drain north of the state capital, Brisbane, police said.

Brisbane's north-west suburbs were worst hit with roofs ripped from houses and power lines brought down, while a freight train was derailed and a nursing home was partially evacuated after significant structural damage, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Inland areas such as the scenic Mount Tamborine area were also hit, with roads blocked by fallen trees.

"It was pretty bad, there were trees down, hailstones the size of golf balls and the boys have been working hard to restore the power," said Kerry Dickenson of the St Bernard's Hotel.

- AFP/yb