Brisbane weather: Death toll rises to seven in South East Qld storms
Seven people are dead, including a nine-year-old girl, a former Qld rugby union player and an elite Brisbane schoolteacher after ferocious storms smashed South East Qld. LATEST UPDATES
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Seven people are dead, including a nine-year-old girl and former Queensland rugby union player, after ferocious storms swept South East Queensland on Christmas night.
Former Queensland rugby player David ‘Mario’ Logan, Iona College teacher Stephen 'Taity' Tait and another man died after a boat capsized off Manly on Brisbane’s bayside, nine-year-old Mia Holland-McCormack died in a stormwater drain in Logan, and two woman drowned in the Mary River at Gympie.
It comes after Helensvale woman Robyn Carman died when a “mini-cyclone” hit the Gold Coast on Christmas night.
In the boat capsize, near Green Island in Moreton Bay, the bodies of Mr Logan, who is 69 from Meridan Plains, and a 48-year-old Alexandra Hills man were found overnight. Mr Tait, who is 59 from Tingalpa, was found dead this morning.
Mr Logan volunteered his time at Brothers Rugby and was part of the club’s touch football committee. He also played for Queensland in 1974.
Brothers Rugby club president Geoff Rodgers said David “Mario” Logan was one of “Brothers’ most favourite sons - very proud of his beloved club and his old school, St Columban’s”.
“Having been a regular in the club’s first grade teams of the 70s and early 80s - and a Queensland representative - he was Brothers to his bootstraps,” Mr Rodgers said.
“A long-term regular serving at the Hobbits Bar and Grill at home games, he was a member of the Brothers Touch committee the last couple of years.
“But above anything and everything, Mario was our mate - our great mate.
“One of the finest, most fun-loving, highest integrity people you could ever meet and we’re all so blessed that he was in our lives - something that we can all cherish for the rest of our lives.”
Mr Rodgers said the club’s sympathies, thoughts and prayers go to Mr Logan’s partner Jenny, his children and grandchildren.
Stephen ‘Taity’ Tait, 48, who was a teacher at Iona College and previously played for Souths Rugby Union Club.
In a statement, Iona College said it would continue to support Mr Tait’s family.
“Prayers are offered for those affected and for the emergency services and rescue teams. All Ionians are asked to pray for Steve, his family and everyone affected.”
Former Queensland Reds and Wallabies coach John Connolly paid tribute to both Mr Tait and Mr Logan, describing them as “two of nature’s best” having either coached or played with the pair throughout his many decades in rugby.
He said the pair were the types to forever give back to their clubs through volunteering at working fees, manning the shops or helping out in junior rugby programs.
“I’ve known Dave all my life. He was a prankster, the type of person who could laugh at himself. You never heard anyone say a bad word about him, Taity was the same,” Mr Connolly said.
“Both of them gave so much back to their clubs too, they were both massive contributors.
“Taity was a talisman for our team. He was such a decent person and a very popular player for us.
“The whole rugby community is so shocked and upset by this.”
Mr Tait and Mr Logan were among a group of 11 men on an annual fishing trip when their 39-foot pleasure craft motorised yacht capsized in a horrific storm.
Rescue crews arrived about 45 minutes later and found some of the men clinging onto the hull of the capsized boat.
Acting Chief Superintendent Andrew Pilotto said eight people were rescued and lucky to survive.
“The storm was still raging when they were rescued... it would have been very difficult to survive in those conditions anywhere,” Supt Pilotto said.
The first body was discovered about an hour after the rescue. The man was found very close to the vessel.
About 10pm, another man was found dead inside the vessel.
At 11am on Wednesday, the third man was also found inside the vessel by divers.
Supt Pilotto said the alarm was raised “very quickly”, likely by someone nearby the boat when it capsized.
“There were reports people saw it happen... but the conditions were horrific and visibility would have been down to metres.”
“I know the winds were over 100km/h... I’ve been out on the bay in half that and the swell is insane. I can imagine it was tremendous.”
Supt Pilotto said a police officer suffered some injuries due to diesel exposure while retrieving the body of the first man.
“Lots of diesel in the water from the boat capsizing and spilling out... when you don’t have specialist equipment and you’re in the water, at the time they weren’t looking for bodies they were thinking they could save people in the boat.”
He said the retrieval of two men inside the boat was “quite a difficult process”.
He urged people to be careful on the water and listen to the weather warnings.
“You have to be aware of the weather, the last four days has been at an unpredictability we haven’t seen for a long time,” he said.
“If you’re out on the water things can change very quickly.”
The boat will be salvaged and brought back to shore where the investigation will continue.
Meanwhile, it is understood nine-year-old Mia Holland-McCormack jumped a fence at an address in Palara St, Rochedale South, Logan about 6.30pm on Tuesday and was swept away in surging waters in a storm drain.
Paramedics rushed to the scene but she could not be revived.
At Gympie, authorities around 7.10pm Tuesday located the body of a 40-year-old woman who along with two other women was swept into the Mary River.
The body of a 46-year-old woman was found near the Gympie Weir on Wednesday.
The third woman managed to reach the river’s bank and get out safely.
Police say the three Gympie women were exploring a storm water drain known as “The Love Tunnel” when a serious storm came over, leading to a rush of water in the drain.
“I was aware of the tunnels but I wasn’t aware it was a common place for adventurers, but what I would say to everyone is that stormwater drains are not for people to go exploring in … and what’s occurred today is a tragic result of adventuring,” Superintendent Paul Algie said.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said it had been difficult circumstances.
“In the south east we’ve had extraordinarily difficult weather, storms day after day and an extraordinary amount of rain as well,” Ms Carroll said.
Disaster Recovery Minister Nikki Boyd said there had been a remarkable effort after the storms.
“SES has had what we anticipate what may be a record amount of phone calls for assistance,” she said.
“Just since Christmas we’ve seen 1600 calls through to the SES for assistance across Queensland and 1300 of them have been in the southeast corner.”
Ms Boyd said additional support was coming from interstate.
“We are also getting additional reinforcements as well from New South Wales, we are getting some additional SES workers that will be coming into the southeast,” she said.
“We are also getting additional support for emergency workers in the southeast because the scale of that event has also been quite considerable.”
Ms Boyd said damage assessments were still coming through.
Up to 200,000 Queenslanders could be without power for days, with more than 800 power lines down after the storms, which included a wild Christmas night “mini-cyclone” Premier Steven Miles called “unprecedented”.
Massive gum trees were ripped out by the roots and flung into nearby homes at Jimboomba, south of Brisbane, and in the Gold Coast’s northern suburbs the winds lifted roofs off buildings as teeming rain and 100km/h winds battered the region.
Half a dozen storms smashed South East Queensland on Tuesday night, with roofs blown off houses and a school at Manly on the Bayside, boats turned upside down in Wynnum, and golf-ball-sized hail reported at Zillmere.
Flash flooding swallowed cars and inundated some houses on Brisbane’s southside, including on Old Cleveland Rd.
Tuesday’s severe thunderstorms marked the fourth day of torrential rainfall, large hail and damaging winds for the South East.
“This back-to-back (storms) is very unusual to see but it is because of the main surface trough extending over most of the region and destabilising throughout the day,” a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said on Tuesday night.
Brisbane CBD received about 66mm of rain in an hour and the storm was expected to ease overnight before starting again on Wednesday morning.
“There is a potential that the system as a whole will weaken (on Wednesday), but very dangerous isolated thunderstorms are expected,” the spokesperson said.
The bureau also confirmed it was looking into reports of a tornado over the Gold Coast during Monday night’s deadly storm.
Personnel from the State Emergency Service were overwhelmed with hundreds of calls for help, with more than a dozen homes across the South East evacuated, while others face massive repair bills and clean-up jobs. The damage bill, which already stands in the many millions of dollars, could rise further with more wild weather predicted over the coming days.
At Helensvale on the Gold Coast, Robyn Carman died after she was crushed by a falling tree while walking home following a car breakdown just 500m from her house. Nearby, a couple cowered with their cat in a bathtub as their roof was lifted off, while another family huddled under a kitchen table as a massive gum tree struck by lightning toppled over and came crashing through their home.
Long-term residents of the Gold Coast, Logan and the Scenic Rim said they had never seen anything like it, with almost 1000 power lines knocked out, cutting off supply to about 130,000 properties across the South East.
About 80,000 of those were on the Gold Coast, with 18,000 in Logan and 15,000 in the Scenic Rim. Late on Tuesday, power had been restored to about 10,000 of those, with Energex warning it could be days before the majority of affected customers were back online.
Dozens of traffic lights were down across the Gold Coast, leading to chaos on the roads, while some shops sold out of ice as people stacked Eskies and ice boxes with leftover Christmas feasts.
Police manned some intersections, but many were gridlocked with motorists jostling to get through. Ms Carman, 59, was crushed by the tree outside a home on Discovery Drive at Helensvale about 9.30pm. She lived with her sister and has been described as “a lovely lady” who worked at a local bakery.
Neighbours were shocked to hear of her death. A few streets away, Dan Robbins was at home when he heard lightning strike a massive gum tree in front of his property.
He quickly gathered his family, including three children aged seven and under, and sheltered under the kitchen table just moments before the gum tree came smashing through the house.
Most of the damage was to the front bedrooms where Mr Robbins’ young daughters were tucked in bed moments earlier.
“I nearly lost it,” said Mr Robbins. “I just about had a full-on panic attack.”
His work ute and boat were also smashed by falling trees. He said he had complained to the Gold Coast City Council several times about the gum tree as he feared the damage it could do if it fell.
“We’ve been asking the council about that tree for years,” he said as mates helped to cut through branches with chainsaws on Boxing Day.
Mr Miles called the storm “unprecedented” for the South East. “This is the first time we have seen a storm so intense concrete power poles were taken down,” he said.
“It’s going to take a long time for us to get power back on to everybody’s homes.
“Currently, there are 123,000 homes without power, 82,000 of those are on the Gold Coast … 18,000 in Logan and another 15,600 in the Scenic Rim.
“They’ll call in field crews from other parts of the state to reinforce the crews here in the South East, but it is going to take our time to get this many power poles, this many power lines repaired.”
Deputy Premier Cameron Dick called the storm a mini-cyclone, while Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said “nobody has ever seen anything like this”.
“It resembles the aftermath of a cyclone,” he said.
“We’re talking about large, mature trees that have been bent sideways, ripped up out of the ground and tossed aside like matchsticks.”
Jimboomba couple Betty and David Hall were lucky to escape without injury when a tree crashed through their home on Christmas night.
“David went into the lounge and I sort of followed him and then all of a sudden this great big square lump of ceiling came down, rain pouring in,” she said. “I went out near the front door and it happened again … the roof came down and we were just paddling in water. It was scary, I was panicking. We’ve had some bad storms through the years but nothing like that.”
Mrs Hall said two strangers emerged from the darkness to help the older couple.
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