At least one dead as wild storm hits Australia -PHOTO -VIDEO

A severe storm in Australia has resulted in one fatality, the closure of schools, and power outages affecting tens of thousands of people.

Police said a 63-year-old woman died after a tree fell on a cabin in the country's southeast, News.Az reports citing AFP.

"Destructive" winds of more than 110 kilometres (68 miles) per hour are lashing the region, leaving about 150,000 people without power.

Victorian state premier Jacinta Allan warned power outages could take up to three days to fix.

"There are some areas where the conditions remain too dangerous to make repairs," she said.

Meanwhile, coastal areas have been hit by high tides -- in some cases swallowing up sand dunes.

People have been warned to avoid unnecessary travel, while some schools have closed.

Authorities in New South Wales were concerned the damaging winds would increase fire danger on Monday, with many areas on high alert.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service inspector Ben Shepherd warned Sydney and surrounding areas that they would see the worst of the fire danger on Monday, but conditions would ease in the afternoon.

Parts of Tasmania have been inundated by flooding and destructive winds -- with gusts peaking at 150 kilometres (93.2 miles) per hour over the weekend.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Christie Johnson said a series of cold fronts sweeping across Australia's southeast had caused "damaging to destructive winds".

But conditions were set to ease Tuesday, she said.

Johnson warned further cold fronts would impact the country later in the week, but she did not anticipate conditions to be as extreme.

More than 200 thousand #homes in south-eastern #Australia were left without water and electricity due to #storm #winds and heavy #Rains. pic.twitter.com/655bgliWC2

— News.Az (@news_az) September 2, 2024

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