Miva farmers left with thousands of dollars in damage after reported tornado

Trees were uprooted and buildings destroyed after a tornado struck a rural area north of Gympie overnight. SEE AFTERMATH PHOTOS HERE.

Farmers and rural residents have been left devastated and thousands of dollars out of pocket after a reported tornado tore through areas north of Gympie overnight.

Trees were uprooted and buildings destroyed in the small town of Miva.

By Wednesday morning, scenes on Munna Miva Road resembled a disaster movie, with several trees blocking paths and debris scattered everywhere.

For residents Katie and Christian Christensen, who have lived at their Miva farm for about seven years, the storm was unlike anything they had ever seen before.

Mrs Christensen said she and her three children were home when the storm struck, and dad Christian was stranded on a blocked road while on his way home from Gladstone.

“We were sitting on the deck watching what we thought was a gentle storm rolling in from the east,” Mrs Christensen said.

That gentle storm soon showed its true colours and within 10 minutes the rain was ‘coming in sideways’ and hail pelted the iron roof of the Christensen home.

Katie Christensen sheltered inside her house with her three kids, while the storm outside ripped their property to shreds.

“All I could hear was the sound of the hail hitting the house and the roof rattling,” she said.

“Any crack in any window, water has just come gushing in the house.”

Terrified they were going to lose their roof, Mrs Christensen and the three children fled to the most sheltered room in the house and hid under a mattress for half an hour until the worst blew over.

Outside, the storm tore the Christensen’s farm apart.

A hay shed, located 50 metres from their house, was nearly wiped out, leaning to the left with sheets of roofing iron scattered about and some piercing the thick chicken wire surrounding the chook pen nearby.

The Christensen’s hay shed was barely left standing after the storm on Tuesday night.

A metal water tank, although half-empty, was found on its side after it was blown away by gale force winds.

Thankfully, the family’s two dogs, Silvi and Mabel, and the family cattle were okay.

Mrs Christensen said she could not begin to estimate the amount of damage caused by the storm, and was waiting to speak with her insurance company.

“We’re just trying to work out what to do today, do we clean up or not?” she said.

The Christensen’s neighbours, Ben and Britnee Bambling, were also heavily affected by the storm, which Mr Bambling said wiped out almost 90 acres (0.364217 square kilometres) of sugar cane crops.

Mr Bambling said he was in Brisbane at the time, but when he returned was gutted to find the crops, his major source of income, completely wiped out.

Ben Bambling had his sugar cane crops destroyed by the storm, his major source of income.

“There’s possibly thousands (of dollars in damage), we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks” he said.

But Mr Bambling said he considered himself luckier than other people, considering the crops were harvested before the storm struck, but the hale and water damage was still significant.

“There’s no such thing as insurance for farming, cropping and cattle and anything like that,” he said.

“You’ve just got to try again, I guess.”

In the near-decade the Bamblings and their young daughter have been living on the property, they had never experienced a storm like this.

Still, the grower couldn’t help but see the irony.

“Always complaining about the dry, now we’re complaining about the wet,” he said.

Meteorologist Helen Reid said the storm rolled in from the southwest around 8.30pm on Tuesday night and was one in a cluster of affecting parts of southeast Queensland.

She said she could not confirm reports the storm was a tornado as “they are very localised and wouldn’t necessarily be right over the top of the reporting station”.

She did say it was not uncommon to see tornadoes in parts of Australia, and the wild weather was usually associated with intense storms during the warmer months.

The Bureau of Meteorology is investigating and assessing damage to confirm the storm was a tornado.

Originally published as Miva farmers left with thousands of dollars in damage after reported tornado