Homes destroyed, thousands in dark after less than a week of lightning, hail and rain in parts of Queensland
Several homes were destroyed and hundreds more damaged after less than a week of giant hail, destructive winds and relentless rain in Queensland’s southeast.
The Gold Coast, Logan and Mount Tamborine areas were most affected by the recent bout of wild weather since Christmas Day, which plunged families into the dark and sent some to hospital.
Four homes have since been “completely destroyed” while another 750 suffered minor to severe damage, Deputy Premier Cameron Dick said at a press conference today.
Meanwhile, about 18,000 residents are still without power as Energex and Ergon crews work day and night to restore supply.
“There’s more here to do… we’re going to work hard to restore power as quickly as possible,” he said.
“We’ve seen the power system absolutely destroyed so this isn’t about restoration, this is about rebuilding power. We have not seen this sort of damage in my lifetime in this part of Queensland.”
To support the state’s emergency services, which received more than 3000 requests for help in the region since Christmas Day, 48 SES personnel from New South Wales and 70 volunteers from Disaster Relief Australia will fly in to assist in recovery efforts.
Dick warned there was a risk of storms in the southeast through New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as a heatwave rolls in the north, western and central parts of Queensland in what he labelled was an “unprecedented time” for the state.
“We can get through this, we know Queenslanders are tough and resilient. It is a hard time for many families at the moment so we want to wish every Queenslander a Happy New Year,” he said.
“We’ve never had this sort of natural disaster in the North and the Far North and the South, so we’re using every possible resource.”
Coastal areas from Rockhampton all the way to the NSW border remained on alert this morning as the Bureau of Meteorology warned of isolated minor to moderate flooding thanks to the relentless downpour but a severe thunderstorm warning was cancelled.
From the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast and inland to the Darling Downs and Western Downs, communities still scrambling to recover from damaging weather earlier in the week watched on with dread yesterday as another round of storms rolled in.
Out west, giant six-centimetre hail smashed Chinchilla and the icy stones falling in Tara and near Mitchell were almost as big.
Blackwater copped 117km/h wind gusts and Gympie, just north of the Sunshine Coast, endured one that topped 90km/h.
On the southern Sunshine Coast hinterland, Beerburrum was inundated by 110 millimetres of rain in just two hours and Landsborough copped 67 millimetres in just half an hour.
On the Gold Coast, flash flooding at theme parks gave new meaning to the term Wet’n’Wild and a lightning strike took out a chunk of a building in Coolangatta.
Lightning was also to blame for two hospitalisations further north, with a person in an excavator at Eudlo on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and a driver on the Bruce Highway at Burpengary, north of Brisbane, both injured in separate incidents.
They were both in a stable condition.
In Jimboomba, south of Brisbane, a man injured when a tree fell and crushed his tractor was airlifted to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a stable condition.
“These storms are popping up at short notice and they are moving through an area quite quickly,” state disaster coordinator Shane Chelepy said.
Nearly 15,000 homes were plunged into darkness from Gympie to Redcliffe in the Moreton Bay region yesterday, adding to tens of thousands in the dark since Christmas.
Early this morning, 25,000 addresses were still without power, including 13,000 on the Gold Coast, almost 5000 in the Scenic Rim, 4000 in Logan and 2000 on the Sunshine Coast.
“Those storms today could well delay those reconnection timeframes,” Premier Steven Miles said.
“The first priority has to be the safety of our emergency service paid and volunteer staff as well as our energy workers.”
Families told they would have the lights back on for New Year’s Eve are now unlikely to be reconnected until Friday.
Energy Queensland CEO said crews were working “as fast as we humanly can”.
Reinforcements from New South Wales and Victoria have been deployed to support the recovery efforts as cleanup crews face an uphill battle with more storms and flash flooding forecast.
By last night, the State Emergency Service had received about 3800 calls for help since Christmas Day and about 800 of those were still outstanding even after 300 crews hit the streets during the day.
Acting commissioner Stephen Smith encouraged residents certain there were no hazards around to do what they could while waiting for SES volunteers to arrive.
“Start to do that work. Our crews will get there as soon as they can,” he said.
“And then they’ll be able to apply those skills to do the things you can’t do.”
The south-east is expecting a wet New Year’s Eve but the worst of the storms are expected to move further north.
Parts of the state from Charters Towers to Emerald could see giant hail and heavy rain.
The federal government has announced a review into the nation’s emergency warning system as the bureau comes under intense scrutiny for its forecasting.
