SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - CYCLONE-LIKE storms ripped across the south-east corner of Australia's tropical state Queensland, killing one man, destroying houses and leaving more than 230,000 homes and businesses without power, authorities said on Monday.

The storms cut a path of destruction on Sunday night from the state capital Brisbane to the tourist havens of the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

'It looks like there's been a bomb, a great big bomb go off in all the street - it's just terrible,' Brisbane resident Davina Thomas told local radio on Monday.

'My daughter's had her roof blown off - it's in the pool.' The storms carried destructive winds, large hail and torrential rain and caused flash flooding. A 20-year-old man was killed when he was sucked down a drain in Brisbane.

Seventy thousand homes in the area devastated by the storms are still without power.