Severe storms leave trail of destruction across Wide Bay

Severe storm cells crossing the Wide Bay have unleashed chaos, knocking down trees, causing flash flooding on several roads and headaches for bargain shoppers. LATEST.

Wild weather which struck Gympie on Boxing Day left a trail of devastation across the region, including knocking a tree into a home near Gympie Central Shopping Centre.

The fallout from the wild weather which ripped across the Wide Bay Burnett in the past 24 hours continues to be felt, with a major retail outlet shut and homeowners cleaning up the debris.

Shoppers have been forced to wait at Gympie’s Big W, which remained shut at Gympie Central shopping Centre throughout Wednesday morning following the storms which started about 3pm Boxing Day.

A power outage reportedly caused the unexpected closure.

The storms arrived in waves knocking down powerlines, up-ending trees and causing flash flooding at roads and rivers, and tragically leaving one woman dead in the Mary River and another missing. 

Gympie was hit hardest with one severe storm cell developing in the city’s northwest shortly before 3pm.

A power outage has reportedly caused Big W to remain shut on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the severe storms crossed the region.

It grew in intensity as it crossed the city in a south-easterly direction, recording a 100km/h wind gust and scattering debris across roads and yards.

A Fox St address about 100m from Gympie Central Shopping Centre, where a large tree was uprooted and crashed onto the roof of a nearby home.

The falling tree collected powerlines as it came crashing down, with emergency responders forced to shore up the veranda of the two-storey home before rushing off to other parts of the region.

The storm cells scattered debris across Murgon in the South Burnett. Photo: Anthony Ireland

Trees at Nelsons Reserve were uprooted too, while sheet metal from a roof was ripped off a nearby building and scattered across Reef St.

The wild weather left a trail of vegetation destruction at multiple locations at the city including Lady Mary Tce, Wises Rd, and Chapple St.

A falling tree also came crashing down across the backyards of three homes at Apollonian Vale.

Residents reported several roads cut by flash flooding at Glenwood.

Trees were blown across roads at Imbil, Kin Kin and Cedar Pocket, too.

Debris was left scattered across parts of the South Burnett, although the wild weather was accompanied by minimal rainfall with Kingaroy receiving only 4.8mm.

Power outages were reported throughout the region from shortly after midday.

While most of Gympie Central Shopping Centre had power a number of stores, including Big W were closed into Wednesday morning due to power outages from the storm.

Creek to Coast Appliances opened their doors on Wednesday between 11am and 2pm to customers “needing an emergency replacement fridge as the crazy storms have blown up theirs”, a post on its Facebook account said.

The wild weather still delivered desperately needed drops north of Gympie, with 48mm falling at Bundaberg, 42mm at Maryborough, and 29mm at Hervey Bay.

South Burnett Christmas storm. Kingaroy. Photo: Milissa Goodman

Carnage and aftermath of the Boxing Day storms through Gympie. Picture: Scott Kovacevic

A “huge” tree had fallen across Neerdie Rd. Picture: Picture: Gemma Rayner, Dec 26, 2023

Originally published as Severe storms leave trail of destruction across Wide Bay