Brisbane and southeast Queensland devastated by a third storm
Loading...
Thursday, November 20, 2008
SOUTHEAST Queensland has been battered by the third wild storm this week and more severe weather is on the way.
A stormfront extending from Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales to Gympie in southern Queensland brought heavy rain, high winds and nearly 3000 thousand lightning strikes between 4pm and 9pm (AEST) yesterday.
About 1500 homes, mostly in the Logan and Beenleigh areas, were without power this morning after 45,000 were blacked out earlier.
The storms have already claimed two lives and left a damages bill of around $500 million.
But the worst may not be over with another severe storm forecast tomorrow night.
Premier Anna Bligh urged Queenslanders to be prepared.
"We haven't seen the end of it yet. We know there is more to come," she said.
Yesterday afternoon police recovered the body of an 85-year-old woman who died when a car was carried away by raging floodwaters west of Brisbane.
The death, which followed that of a 20-year-old man on Sunday night, came as emergency crews were stretched to the limit dealing with fresh flood damage across Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley.
The area was deluged by up to 250mm of rain between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Premier Bligh yesterday activated the state's natural disaster plan, allowing greater co-ordination and giving assistance to more families than the previous declaration on Sunday.
"You are reminded of the awesome power of nature," Ms Bligh said as she inspected damage around Ipswich.
The latest storm left motorists trapped in their cars as water flooded parts of Wynnum Rd and Creek Rd, Tingalpa.
Powerlines crashed down at Everton Park, Windsor and Balmoral and police said part of the roof of the Scarborough Hotel had also been blown off.
"We're being smashed again," Scenic Rim SES controller Brendan Guy said.
"There are trees down and water everywhere."
The storm hit areas such as Mt Tamborine, which were still reeling from the week's earlier storms.
Resident Howard Edmunds said: "There was no hail tonight but but there was a hell of a lot of thunder and lightning and a huge downpour of rain in a very short space of time."
Gold Coast SES volunteers had more than 50 callouts between noon and 8pm, acting controller Chad Tripp said.
At 9pm, they were checking reports a tree had crashed on to a house at Maudsland.
Authorities feared up to 100 homes may have been damaged by storms in Blackwater, between Rockhampton and Emerald.
Power outages caused traffic lights across Brisbane to go out, and debris on rail tracks forced the closure of the rail line between Milton and Roma Street stations.