Over the weekend, residents of Brisbane, Australia, were bracing for the impact of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The storm was downgraded to a tropical low, and made landfall on the mainland on Saturday. It was the first storm of its kind in the area in 51 years.

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.