Emerald, Gayndah start clean up after storms
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Emerald residents wade through a partially submerged street in the wake of wild storms in the central Queensland town. (User submitted: Tim Bateup)
Residents in central and southern Queensland are assessing the damage this morning after another night of savage weather.
Severe storms with destructive 180-kilometre-an-hour winds lashed the town of Gayndah, just south west of Bundaberg, unroofing four homes, damaging the local SES headquarters and bringing down trees and powerlines.
Ergon Energy says power has been restored to most customers with 1,500 in the dark for many hours last night.
Crop consultant Lex Webster was at home when the storm struck and says the winds were very dangerous.
"We've got a little five-month-old baby and my wife and we were quite terrified really, just hearing massive trees getting snapped off, pieces of iron flying through the sky," he said.
Police Senior Constable Ken Denman says it was a similar scene at Emerald west of Rockhampton, where wind gusts reached speeds of up to 140 kilometres per hour.
"I was having a look out my back door while I was awake and it looked like a mini-tornado, it was rather interesting at the time. I had to close the door get the kids inside just watching the things get thrown around outside," he said.
He says the full extent of the damage will become clearer today.
"Broken windows, trees on sheds, the Woolworths shopping centre - a damaged roof there, there were two to three houses unroofed a number of sheds were blown over, one of the building contractors lost a lot of roofs off houses he was dealing with," he said.
SES controller George Thompson says there were more than 40 calls for assistance in Emerald last night.
"It actually started with trees being across the road blocking traffic and basically escalated from there to hail damage, wind damage, roofs off houses, dongas overturned, things blown away," he said.
Tieri woman Denise says the wind was horrendous, and tree branches blew down her street like a river.
"It was pretty wild, I've just never seen wind like it in my life, and the lightning, thunder, the hail, it was unbelievable," she said.
"We've got trees down in our street. We really thought our windows were going to go from the hail.
"I've got a deck out the back and I've got pot plants, well there's none left, they've all been stripped. We lost power about 6 [o'clock] last night, we still haven't got it back."
Dysart farmer Deb Bauman says they lost most of their wheat crop in the storm.
"You know we had a wheat crop that was due to be harvested today and it looks like we've had a bit of a look and most of it's actually been destroyed and just chopped off at the ground," she said.
"That's farming, you sort of prepare yourself for those things, but when you're that close to harvest and it was a really good crop, it's very disappointing, that's for sure."
