Storm cuts power to thousands of Darling Downs homes on Christmas
Thousands of homes from Roma to the Lockyer Valley still have no power and council workers are still cleaning up after wild storms thrashed the state across the Christmas weekend – and there’s still more to come.
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Thousands of regional Queenslanders have no power on Boxing Day after severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the south east of the state, with outages spanning from Roma to the coast.
More storms may impact the southeast of the state on Boxing Day, bringing more rain to the Darling Downs which has already recorded more than 100mm of rain within the past seven days.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported the Darling Downs and Granite Belt Forecast districts may be impacted by another thunderstorm on Tuesday, December 26.
“An upper trough will cross southern Queensland over the next few days, enhancing showers and thunderstorms over eastern Queensland,” BOM reported.
“The trough will weaken from Wednesday, extending into a broad low pressure area on Thursday and Friday.
“A new trough will extend across western, central, and southern Queensland next weekend, enhanced by a new upper trough system.”
Between December 19 and December 25, the rain gauge at Toowoomba Airport recorded 124mm of rain, Mt Kynoch reported 61.8mm, 95.2mm at Gatton, and 46mm was recorded at Helidon.
On Tuesday morning, December 26, Ergon Energy and Energex reported the following outages at 9am:
A spate of severe storm cells thrashed the Darling Downs and Southern Downs regions over the festive season, leaving homes with no power on Christmas Day, giant hail causing damage
to property, and five people rescued from flood waters.
On Sunday night, a group of people were travelling along the Leichhardt Highway when their car became trapped in floodwaters at Billa Billa in the Goondiwindi region.
A Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman said paramedics assessed five patients on scene after they were rescued from the water after 7pm.
“No patients required transport to hospital,” she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported widespread rainfall was expected again on Christmas Day, however severe thunderstorms were more likely to impact areas like Longreach and Charleville.
On Christmas morning more than 60 Darling Downs residents woke to find they had no power after a spate of severe storm cells thrashed the region in the lead-up to the festive season.
More than 24 hours after thousands of homes across the Toowoomba and Southern Downs region lost power, Ergon Energy worked to restore power at Glenvale.
On Monday, December 25, about 11am, a number of homes on Belmond Ct, Burnell Ct, Glenvale Rd, and Mash Dr, still had no power.
The severe storm on Christmas Eve came less than 24 hours after the region was battered by giant hail stones during a wild slow-moving storm on Saturday evening, which damaged homes and properties across the Lockyer Valley.
On Sunday, December 24, severe storm cells with strong winds and hail impacted a large number of suburbs southwest of Toowoomba City.
At 10am, Ergon Energy reported almost 2000 properties near East Toowoomba had lost power, as well as 541 homes in the Wyreema and Cambooya areas, 180 homes east of Greenmount, and 385 properties around Brookstead.
A large number of homes in the Southern Downs region near Millmerran and in Warwick were also affected by the storm.
An Ergon Energy spokesman said it had crews on the ground waiting for the weather situation to pass before undergoing any electrical works.
He urged residents to be careful around any fallen powerlines while waiting for crews to arrive.
The spokesman said Ergon Energy had analysed the weather situation in the lead-up to the Christmas period, and it was well prepared to ensure power was restored to homes and businesses as soon as possible.
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