Tornadoes in Queensland

On top of record heat and bushfires comes floods and now tornadoes in another part of Australia

Queensland battered

Mini-tornados hit Queensland

Stuff,

26 January, 2013

Three tornados have ripped through the Bundaberg region this afternoon, injuring 17 people and damaging 150 properties.

The first tornado struck the coastal town of Bargara about 1pm (3pm NZT), bringing down powerlines, tearing off roofs and smashing windows.

A man and a woman were seriously injured when their car was crushed by a falling tree. Both have been airlifted to Brisbane in a critical condition.

The second tornado hit Burnett Heads, about five kilometres north of Bargara, about 3.30pm, before tracing back towards the suburbs of Bundaberg.

Soon after, the sleepy seaside hamlet of Coonar, about 6 kilometres south of Bargara, was hit by a third tornado.

Emergency Services Minister Jack Dempsey said that a triage centre had been set up in Bargara to treat 15 other people injured by flying glass and debris.

"It's certainly an Australia Day no one in Bundaberg will ever forget," he said.

"The fact that these tornados are completely unpredictable...we can't say whether they're finished or whether more or coming.

"People are shocked. They're anxious and the Queensland Ambulance Service has taken a number of calls from residents with anxiety."

Dempsey said thousands of homes were without power and efforts to repair powerlines were hampered by the risk associated with being outside.

"We're telling everyone to stay inside because we don't know what's coming over the next 24 hours," he said.

"That makes it difficult for workers to clean up and repair power lines. But we're hoping power can be restored overnight."

Bargara resident Judith McNamara, who witnessed the tornado through her kitchen window, said it left a car in her yard with a tree through it.

"All of a sudden ... I looked up and a tree went flying through the air ... and the car went up," she told ABC radio.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said it damaged homes, shops, a bowling club and government buildings.

All roads into the town are closed.

Dempsey said Bundaberg was still bracing itself for possible flooding from the Burnett River and said he expected many residents would experience a sleepless night waiting to see what the weather brings.

"For this event to have happened here on top of everything else that's going on...no one can believe it," he said.

Emergency flood alerts have been issued across Queensland with people in some areas told to get to higher ground.

Among them were residents of Gladstone, a town of about 30,000 people, who were warned by authorities that thousands of homes could be flooded as the Boyne River swelled to a one-in-100-year level.

The Local Disaster Management Group at Gladstone advised flood levels along the Boyne River would exceed one-in-100 flood levels on the morning high tide at 8.45am (NZT 10.45am) and evening high tide at 9pm (NZT 11pm).

Residents had been door knocked by SES teams who advised them to leave their homes and seek higher ground.

Meanwhile, 500km south in Brisbane, people were on standby for the city's worst flooding since 2011.

Extremely heavy rainfall, storm tides and Wivanhoe Dam releases have put low-lying areas at risk of flooding and this morning Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced three new temporary sandbag depots; two in Sandgate and one in Lota, on Brisbane's bayside.

These were in addition to the permanent depots in Newmarket, Balmoral, Darra and Virginia.

The Bureau of Meteorology had issued a severe weather warning for the area this weekend with damaging winds, heavy rainfall, abnormally high tides and dangerous surf conditions.

It said tides were expected to be almost a metre higher than those listed on tide charts.

"This is about being alert, but I urge residents to not be alarmed," Quirk said.

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely over the weekend and I want people to still go out and have a good day on Australia Day, they simply need to be prepared 'just in case'."

The Saturday morning storm tides were also expected to put up to 1600 homes in danger of being inundated in the coastal Moreton Bay region, north of Brisbane.

Moreton Bay Regional Council Mayor Allan Sutherland said on Friday the council and SES were door-knocking homes in some of the areas at greatest risk.

''These potentially dangerous storm tides are associated with the ex-tropical cyclone Oswald which could also dump up to 400mm of rain on the Moreton region this weekend,'' the mayor said in a statement.

Sand and sandbags were available for areas potentially affected by storm tides at SES depots on Bribie Island, at Deception Bay and Redcliffe, he said.

Former Cyclone Oswald has been causing flooding across the state since Tuesday, when it crossed Cape York Peninsula's west coast and was downgraded to a low-pressure system.

Many Australia Day celebrations have been cancelled across the state due to the extreme weather.

Elsewhere, an emergency flood alert was issued on Saturday morning and residents of Tannum Sands and Boyne Island, at the mouth of the Boyne river, were being asked to evacuate.

The Bureau of Meteorology said about 4.8 metres of water was gushing over the nearby Awoonga Dam into the Boyne River, and levels over the spillway may reach six metres during Saturday with further continued rainfall.

West of Gladstone, over 370 mm fell at Boolaroo Tops, 347mm fell at Kroombit Tops 347mm in the Boyne catchment, and Captain Creek 307mm in the Baffle Creek catchment.

Flood warnings had been issued for the Calliope, Boyne, Baffle and Kolan Rivers.

The Local Disaster Management Group at Gladstone said flood levels along the Boyne River were to exceed one in 100 flood levels on the morning high tide at 8.45am (AEST) on Saturday and evening high tide at 9pm.

Residents at Callide Creek, 600km north of Brisbane, were urged to move to higher ground at the nearby Jambin Hall as a flood release from the Callide Dam was tipped to reach 1.5 metres.

People in the coastal towns of Toorbul and Meldale, between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, were meanwhile issued with a watch and act notice, with the Department of Community Safety warning the communities are likely to be affected by a dangerous storm surge caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald at 9am.

Meanwhile, a 22-year-old man who had been stranded for 24 hours by flooding on a roadside in Queensland's northeast was plucked to safety by a helicopter on Friday night.

The man had been driving from Charters Towers to Mackay when his car became bogged, before rising floodwater left him stranded on the side of Suttor Development Road around 5pm on Thursday, the RACQ said.

The man couldn't be reached by road rescuers, so the RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter was sent to his aid just before 5pm on Friday.