Another wild night of storms has turned deadly with two people, including a little girl, tragically killed as grave fears held for four others after their boat capsized.
The nine-year-old girl was swept into a storm drain after jumping a fence on Palara St, Rochedale South in Logan, in Brisbane’s south, about 6.30pm on Boxing Day.
After the girl was located paramedics tried desperately to revive her but she could not be saved.
The tragedy on Tuesday comes as body was pulled from the water after a boat capsized in waters between Manly and Green Island.
Queensland Ambulance said eight people who were on board were taken to hospital as police divers continue to search for two others.
There are also grave fears for two women missing in Gympie amid fears they were swept away in floodwaters.
Emergency workers were called to the Kidd Bridge on Tuesday afternoon after reports three women were swept away.
Police said one woman, 46, made it to safety and alerted authorities but two others, 46 and 40, are still missing in the vicinity of the Mary River.
An electrical storm is seen at Reedy Creek on the Gold Coast Monday, December 25, 2023
A car is stuck in floodwaters in Longlands St, East Brisbane, on Tuesday
Police, swift water rescue crews and State Emergency Service volunteers were searching the area, police said on Tuesday night.
Earlier Gympie was hit by a severe thunderstorm that uprooted trees as a band of storms rolled through the state’s southeast.
The severe weather follows storms on Christmas Day that left thousands of people without power.
One woman was killed by a falling tree on Monday evening.
The 59-year-old sustained severe head injuries after her car was hit by a tree at Helensvale on the Gold Coast.
Queensland Ambulance Service assistant commissioner Andrew Hebbron warned people to avoid travelling on the roads during severe weather.
‘An absolutely tragic set of circumstances and a good reminder for the moment and especially today that if you don’t need to be on the roads today we encourage you not to be,’ he said.
In Jimboomba, south of Brisbane, Betty and David Hall’s ceiling collapsed.
‘It was scary, I was panicking,’ Ms Hall said.
‘We lost power as well.’
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 120,000 people were still without electricity across the state’s southeast.
Of those, 82,000 were on the Gold Coast, where 700 power lines were down.
Queensland along with parts of Australia’s east coast endured a torrid few days as the wild weather settled in across Christmas Eve and Christmas day
‘There’ll be a couple of days of work there to rectify that,’ Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said.
‘We’ve got powerlines down, even at our theme parks, so we’re prioritising that as well.’
Queensland Ambulance Service said paramedics’ workloads ‘surged significantly’ as storms hit the Gold Coast on Monday night.
‘We saw everything from people being injured in their homes from damage that was incurred by the storms to some less serious electrocutions,’ Mr Hebbron said.
A man in his 70s was hurt when a tree branch fell onto a tent in Helensvale. He was in a stable condition in hospital with pelvic and back injuries.
A collapsed roof put a man in his 90s in hospital with a head injury, where he remained in a stable condition.
Fallen power lines, felled trees smashing cars and homes, and several drivers crashing into poles kept ambulance crews busy on Christmas Day.
Dreamworld and other Gold Coast theme parks were closed on Boxing Day due to the storms.
A crane on a construction site (pictured) couldn’t withstand the force of the ferocious weather at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast
Properties in Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast suffered damage in wild weather across Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 2023
The Bureau of Meteorology warned Queenslanders on Tuesday afternoon to brace for yet another round of storm weather.
‘Isolated severe very dangerous thunderstorms’ carrying large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain were likely to strike southeast of Clermont and Ingham, to the border.
A major flood warning was also issued for the Logan River on Tuesday, with flood waters already spilling over the banks at 8.7m at Beaudesert, at the Scenic Rim region.
Wind gusts of up to 106km whipped through the seaside tourist hotspot late into the evening on Christmas Day, felling trees and sending debris flying through the street.
More than 100,000 homes in Queensland were plunged into darkness on Christmas Day as the powerful storms damaged power poles.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles, told the media on Tuesday that for the first time the SES reported concrete power poles being taken down by the ferocity of the weather.
‘It will take days to get all of them repaired. I spoken to the mayors of Logan and Gold Coast, the situation is in hand through their local disaster management,’ he said.
Deputy Premier Cameron Dick said the fierce storm ‘can only be described as a mini cyclone’, with emergency crews working overtime to restore power.
A tree is ripped from the ground during a storm in Oxenford on the Gold Coast
A huge number of trees have been brought down by the fierce winds over the festive season (Gaven, QLD is pictured)
Power utility company Energex has warned the damage from the wild weather is ‘catastrophic and widespread’ and some customers will likely be without power for days.
‘This is an extremely dangerous situation,’ the power utility said on Boxing Day morning.
‘If you need to be outside, watch for fallen powerlines – report any you see ASAP to 000 or 13 19 62, stay well away and warn others.
‘Never, ever assume that a downed powerline is anything other than live and dangerous.’
Meanwhile, in Victoria, scores of homes were also still being impacted by power outages in the state’s central and northern regions, including around Sherparton and Echua.
Residents in the state capital shared video online on Tuesday of what they claimed were long streaks of lightning lighting up the sky during a flight over the city.
Play in the Boxing Day cricket Test match, which this year sees Australia front up against Pakistan, stopped just after 2pm when rain started to pelt down over the Melbourne Cricket Ground, stopping play for several hours.
Thousands of homes were left without power on the Gold Coast after powerlines and trees were destroyed (pictured) by the wild weather
However, the teams were able to return to the field in the late afternoon.
Further north, residents in regional NSW braced with renewed threats of flooding, including on the south coast which witnessed ‘intense’ rainfall on Monday.
The BOM recorded more than 89mm of rain falling in just one hour in the Eurobodalla region, an area popular during the summer for tourists.
Advice-level flood warnings were also in place on Tuesday for swathes of the state’s south, including around the Snowy Mountains and Tumut regions.
In the NSW Hunter region, hailstones the size of tennis balls pounded the small town of ‘Rutherford’, north of Newcastle.
Michelle Hadley, posting to social media, showed off a photo of her hands cupping big hailstones with the caption ‘Rutherford’.
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Responding to Ms Hadley’s post, Caz Hooper posted a photo of a bucketful of hail stones and said her car had been wrecked by the blast of hail.
‘So much massive hail in Rutherford,’ she said.
‘I imagine the insurance companies will be very busy this week! My car is wrecked!’
Brooke Lewins, meanwhile, said she had seen ‘tennis ball sized’ hail in the town.
Severe thunderstorms have produced large hailstones (pictured) that smashed properties in northern NSW
Hailstones along with damaging winds and heavy rain hit several towns (Rutherford, pictured) across NSW with the wild weather making it’s way to Sydney
Videos posted to the Maitland Community Noticeboard page show a wild hailstone storm smashing the area, with stones and sharp winds tearing into cars and streets.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for large hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall for parts of Gosford/Wyong, Sydney, Wollondilly/Wingecarribee, Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury and Greater Wollongong areas at 3.46pm on Tuesday.
‘Severe thunderstorms likely to produce large hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding were detected near Glenorie, Wisemans Ferry and Douglas Park,’ the weather gurus said.
‘These thunderstorms are moving towards the south to southeast. They are forecast to affect Frenchs Forest, Mona Vale and Terrey Hills by 4.15 pm and Calga, Manly and Umina by 4.45 pm.
‘Four to 5cm hailstones were reported in the Rutherford and Maitland area between at 1.30 and 2pm.’
The State Emergency Service advises that people should move their cars under cover or away from trees anbd secure or put away loose items around houses, yards and balconies.
Residents were also told keep at least eight metres away from fallen power lines or objects that may be conducting electricity, such as fences.
Tuesday saw conditions ease across much of the country with BOM cancelling multiple weather warnings in NSW and South Australia.
Sydney was forecast to receive only showers, with the possibility of a storm. Similar forecasts were made for Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra.
In the country’s west, advice-level warnings were still in place for a number of bushfires across the southwest. In the state’s north, a heatwave warning was still in place.
