Christmas night thunderstorms and strong winds cut power to 110,000 homes in eastern Australia and toppled a tree that killed one woman, officials said.
Queensland’s ambulance service said a 59-year-old woman was struck by a falling tree on a street in the Gold Coast area, located south of the Queensland capital Brisbane.
“She unfortunately suffered a significant head injury and passed away. We were unable to revive her, which was really quite confronting,” said critical care paramedic Jaye Newton, who was at the scene.
Another falling tree trapped a woman in her car for more than an hour, he told reporters.
“It was like a disaster zone, there were trees just all over the road,” he said, describing how winds had uprooted trees and blown tiles off roofs.
People lost electricity as the storm wrought damage, downing power lines in Brisbane and the Gold Coast area.
Energy company Energex described conditions “catastrophic”.
“There is no easy way to say this but some customers will not have power for days — we’re looking at catastrophic and widespread damage on the scale of a cyclone,” it said in an update on social media.
“Reports of further damage are coming through every minute.”
Severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts, large hail and heavy rainfall were forecast for later Tuesday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
“Isolated very dangerous severe thunderstorms possible again,” it warned on social media, also issuing a major flooding alert for a river about 40kms inland from the Gold Coast.
