Two people have died and more than 100,000 homes were left without power as a result of thunderstorms that battered Australia’s east coast, with warnings of more wild weather to come.
Intense storms affected all three eastern states on Monday, with more than 1,200 calls for help to state emergency services and Sydney airport recording its wettest Christmas Day on record.
Victoria police confirmed a man died at a property in Caringal after a tree branch fell on him on Tuesday morning.
“Emergency services provided medical assistance, however the yet-to-be formally identified man died at the scene,” police said in a statement.
It comes after the Queensland ambulance service confirmed a woman had died in Helensvale on the Gold Coast after being hit by a falling tree on Monday night.
Paramedic Jaye Newton said the scene where the woman died was “confronting”.
He described scenes “like a disaster zone” as he was forced to drive around fallen trees on the motorway.
“It was an extraordinary weather event,” he said.
“There were trees all over the road. We are talking whole big trees uprooted.”
A man in his 70s was injured by a tree branch that fell on to a tent, also in Helensvale. He was in a stable condition in hospital with pelvic and back injuries.
Another man in his 90s was also in a stable condition with head injuries after a roof collapsed on him.
Queensland’s deputy premier, Cameron Dick, described the weather as a “mini cyclone,” adding that the intensity of the storm was unprecedented.
“This has been unprecedented in some ways, with power poles being torn out of the ground and a concrete power pole damaged for the first time ever by a storm. That just gives you an insight to the severity and the destructive nature of the storm,” he said.
Dick called for patience from communities affected by blackouts, saying it could take “some time” to bring the lights back on, after the storm tore power lines from the ground.
“There’s been hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes and that’s done very significant damage to our energy and power network across the south-east,” he said.
“And it’s going to take some time … to put that power system back together and to get the power back on. But we’re just asking all Queenslanders impacted by this to stay safe first of all, and to be calm and patient.”
The deputy commissioner of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service, Kevin Walsh, told ABC News Breakfast winds reached up to 120km/h and led to “a number of trees falling on to homes, other buildings and a whole range of situations”.
More than 500 volunteers have been aiding the NSW SES as they continue their rescue and repair efforts, with assistant commissioner, Sean Kearns, saying the states South Coast faced flash flooding overnight.
“Yesterday we saw some flash flooding around the South Coast and Illawarra areas where we attended the six flood rescues and in the early evening, SES volunteers attended a caravan park in Kiama to assist the family which whose our caravan had been impacted by flash flooding with water up to their knees,” he said.
Senior meteorologist Angus Hines from the weather bureau said the weather pattern along the east coast these past few days – where relatively sunny and clear mornings were followed by intense storms in the evening – was likely to repeat on Boxing Day.
Severe storms were possible for “pretty large swathes of the country” from central Queensland all the way down to Melbourne on Tuesday, Hines said.
“Many spots will probably have a bit of a bright start to the day with sunshine and some fairly pleasant weather, but the risk of further severe thunderstorms developing through this afternoon into the evening is definitely there,” he said.
Between 6.30pm on Christmas night and 4am Tuesday, the Queensland SES received nearly 450 calls for help on the Gold Coast and in Logan and the Scenic Rim. A spokesperson said most of these calls related to structural damage, including trees down on homes or blocking roads.
“It’s more of a [wind] damage-related storm as opposed to flooding,” a spokesperson said. “Lots of people’s homes … have been quite significantly damaged.”
Queensland Fire and Rescue crews responded to an additional 140 jobs, including 28 where people required rescuing, such as from being trapped inside their homes, vehicles or caravans.
South-east Queensland customers affected by the power outage had gone up to more than 120,000, according to Energex.
Danny Donald from Energex said repair work would take “days in some cases”, with old-growth gum trees blocking roads across the network, debris “everywhere” and more than 500 power lines down.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Donald said crews had been working all night, with fresh crews coming on board Tuesday morning.
“It’s really becoming a marathon. This isn’t going to be a sprint, it’s a big job and some places, particularly in the more wooded areas, may be without power for a few days the way it’s looking,” Donald said.
Hines from the Bureau explained that the Gold Coast was hit with a severe storm between 6pm and 8pm on Christmas Day, with heavy rain, large hail and wind gusts of up to 105km/h reported along the waterfront.
Theme parks Movie World, Dreamworld and Wet ‘n’ Wild were forced to close their doors on Boxing Day to deal with the storm’s aftermath.
New South Wales, Victoria hit by strong storms
Volatile weather conditions were expected to continue on Tuesday and Wednesday in NSW after large parts of the state experienced giant hail, heavy rainfall and flash flooding on Christmas Day, including in the central west, the Riverina, the south coast, Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter.
Nearly 190mm of rain was recorded in Eurobodalla, on the state’s south coast, including 156mm in three hours.
Sydney to Hobart sailors have been warned to brace for choppy conditions as thunderstorms and strong winds are forecast for Australia’s biggest boat race. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast wild conditions for the yachts, including heavy rainfall, lightning, poor visibility and potentially hail.
Severe weather may also threaten the first day of the cricket Test against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The NSW SES said volunteers had responded to 312 incidents, on top of 492 recorded on Christmas Eve.
White Xmas in Grenfell NSW 😳 pic.twitter.com/mLthhOA7C5
— Peter Strong AM (@PeterStrongSB) December 25, 2023
Residents in the regional community of Grenfell experienced something akin to a white Christmas, as large hail blanketed the town amid a severe thunderstorm. NSW SES crews responded to more than 50 calls for assistance Kearns said, and there were numerous reports of property damage, including “broken skylights, parts of roofs, broken windows and damaged vehicles”.
Hail was also seen in Orange and Yass, and on parts of the NSW coast.
Parts of Sydney and the south-east of the state had heavy rain on Monday, with 156mm falling in three hours at Eurobodalla, resulting in local flooding.
The SES crews carried out six flood rescues in the south-east, including two at Kiama, two at Albion Park, one at Bemboka and one in the southern tablelands.
In Kiama, crews rescued two adults and two children who were trapped inside a caravan with water “up to their knees”, an SES spokesperson said. Crews also rescued people who were stuck in their cars amid flash flooding in Kiama and Albion Park.
Localised flooding on the tarmac at Sydney airport led to flight delays, diversions and cancellations on Christmas Day, according to Weatherzone. In the 24 hours to 9am Monday the airport received 91.2mm of rain, marking the wettest December day in 53 years.
It was also the wettest Christmas Day on record for the station, with records dating back to 1939 for the airport.
Victoria experienced a very wet Christmas Day, but the rainfall was more widespread and hit earlier in the day when compared with NSW and Queensland. Hines said that some places recorded 100mm of rain and while the bureau is still crunching the numbers, it could turn out to be “the wettest Christmas Day on record for many Victorian locations”.
Balook in Gippsland saw 112mm of rainfall in the 24 hours to 9am Tuesday, and 102mm at the nearby Stradbroke station. Northern parts of Victoria experienced flooding later in the day on Christmas, with central and eastern parts of the day expected to receive thunderstorms on Tuesday.
The Victorian SES received 499 calls for help between 9am on Christmas to 9am today, spread “fairly evenly across the state”. A spokesperson said most of these related to trees down, traffic hazards and building damage.
In the far north, the clean-up and repairs after ex-tropical cyclone Jasper and severe flooding continue. Twelve homes have been confirmed destroyed, 126 properties are severely damaged and 554 moderately so.