Wild Christmas weather: woman killed, more than 100,000 homes without power after Queensland storms

[CharlieH]

 

Boxing Day weather also predicted to be volatile across NSW, Victoria and Queensland, with more thunderstorms and rain forecast

• Follow the Boxing Day weather updates live
• Sydney to Hobart race: sailors warned of thunderstorms and ‘gusty and erratic’ winds

 

 

Wild Christmas weather: woman killed, more than 100,000 homes without power after Queensland storms

Boxing Day weather also predicted to be volatile across NSW, Victoria and Queensland, with more thunderstorms and rain forecast

• Follow the Boxing Day weather updates live
• Sydney to Hobart race: sailors warned of thunderstorms and ‘gusty and erratic’ winds

 

A woman has died and more than 100,000 homes been left without power as a result of severe thunderstorms in south-east Queensland on Christmas night, with warnings of more bad weather to come on Boxing Day across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

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.

 

The Queensland Ambulance Service on Tuesday confirmed that a woman had died in Helensvale on the Gold Coast after being hit by a falling tree on Monday night.

 

Paramedic Jaye Newton told AAP 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 onto 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.

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”.

 

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