Another wild night of storms has turned deadly with six people, including a little girl, tragically killed as grave fears are held for others who remain missing.
The nine-year-old girl was swept into a storm drain after jumping a fence on Palara St, Rochedale South, at Logan in Brisbane’s south, about 6.30pm on Boxing Day.
Paramedics tried desperately to revive the girl once she was located, but she could not be saved with her family requesting privacy at this ‘difficult time’.
A body was pulled from waters in Moreton Bay on Tuesday following a boating accident south of Green Island that is feared to have taken the lives of two more.
Eight people were taken to hospital as police divers continue to search between Manly and Green Island for to people who remain missing.
The search, which was suspended just before midnight, will resume at first light.
The body of a 40-year-old woman was pulled from the Mary River in Gympie after reports two women had been swept away in floodwaters near the Kidd Bridge.
A 46-year-old woman remains missing with the search to resume on Wednesday.
An electrical storm is seen at Reedy Creek on the Gold Coast Monday, December 25, 2023
A car is stuck in floodwaters in Longlands Street, East Brisbane, on Tuesday
The Christmas storms had already accounted for one death on Monday when Robyn Carman, 59, was killed when she was hit by a fallen tree on the Gold Coast .
In Victoria, a woman who is yet to be formally identified was found dead at a campground in Buchan in the state’s Gippsland region.
Emergency services were called to the campsite following reports cars were underwater and people were sheltering on a bridge to escape flash flooding.
Buchan copped up to 69.4mm of rain in just half an hour on Tuesday.
A Victorian man has died after being struck in the head by a falling tree branch while camping on a private property in Caringal, in the state’s east.
Emergency services tried to revive him but he died at the scene on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gympie was hit by a severe thunderstorm that uprooted trees as a band of storms rolled through Queensland’s southeast.
Queensland Ambulance Service assistant commissioner Andrew Hebbron warned people to avoid travelling on the roads during severe weather.
‘An absolutely tragic set of circumstances and a good reminder for the moment and especially today that if you don’t need to be on the roads today we encourage you not to be,’ he said.
In Jimboomba, south of Brisbane, Betty and David Hall’s ceiling collapsed.
‘It was scary, I was panicking,’ Ms Hall said.
‘We lost power as well.’
Queensland along with parts of ‘s east coast endured a torrid few days as the wild weather settled in across Christmas Eve and Christmas day
The severe weather follows storms on Christmas Day that left thousands of people without power.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 120,000 people were still without electricity across the state’s southeast.
Of those, 82,000 were on the Gold Coast, where 700 power lines were down.
‘There’ll be a couple of days of work there to rectify that,’ Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said.
‘We’ve got powerlines down, even at our theme parks, so we’re prioritising that as well.’
The Queensland Ambulance Service said paramedics’ workloads ‘surged significantly’ as storms hit the Gold Coast on Monday night.
‘We saw everything from people being injured in their homes from damage that was incurred by the storms to some less serious electrocutions,’ Mr Hebbron said.
A man in his 70s was hurt when a tree branch fell onto a tent in Helensvale. He was in a stable condition in hospital with pelvic and back injuries.
A collapsed roof put a man in his 90s in hospital with a head injury, where he remained in a stable condition.
Fallen power lines, felled trees smashing cars and homes, and several drivers crashing into poles kept ambulance crews busy on Christmas Day.
The severe storms forced Dreamworld and other Gold Coast theme parks to close on Boxing Day for safety checks.
A crane on a construction site (pictured) couldn’t withstand the force of the ferocious weather at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast
Properties in Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast suffered damage in wild weather across Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 2023
The Bureau of Meteorology warned Queenslanders on Tuesday afternoon to brace for yet another round of storm weather.
‘Isolated severe very dangerous thunderstorms’ carrying large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain were likely to strike southeast of Clermont and Ingham, to the border.
A major flood warning was also issued for the Logan River on Tuesday, with flood waters already spilling over the banks at 8.7m at Beaudesert, at the Scenic Rim region.
Wind gusts of up to 106km whipped through the seaside tourist hotspot late into the evening on Christmas Day, felling trees and sending debris flying through the street.
More than 100,000 homes in Queensland were plunged into darkness on Christmas Day as the powerful storms damaged power poles.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles told media on Tuesday that the SES had reported concrete power poles being taken down by the ferocity of the weather.
‘It will take days to get all of them repaired. I spoken to the mayors of Logan and Gold Coast, the situation is in hand through their local disaster management,’ he said.
Deputy Premier Cameron Dick said the fierce storm ‘can only be described as a mini cyclone’, with emergency crews working overtime to restore power.
A tree is ripped from the ground during a storm in Oxenford on the Gold Coast
A huge number of trees have been brought down by the fierce winds over the festive season (Gaven, QLD is pictured)
Power utility company Energex has warned that damage from the wild weather is ‘catastrophic and widespread’ and some customers will likely be without power for days.
‘This is an extremely dangerous situation,’ the power utility said on Boxing Day.
‘If you need to be outside, watch for fallen powerlines – report any you see ASAP to 000 or 13 19 62, stay well away and warn others.
‘Never, ever assume that a downed powerline is anything other than live and dangerous.’
Meanwhile, in Victoria, scores of homes were also still impacted by power outages in the state’s central and northern regions, including around Sherparton and Echua.
Residents in the state capital shared video online on Tuesday of what they claimed were long streaks of lightning lighting up the sky during a flight over the city.
Play in the Boxing Day cricket Test, where is taking on Pakistan, stopped for several hours from just after 2pm when rain started to pelt down over the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Thousands of homes were left without power on the Gold Coast after powerlines and trees were destroyed (pictured) by the wild weather
However, the teams were able to return to the field in the late afternoon.
Further north, residents in regional NSW braced amid renewed threats of flooding, including on the south coast which witnessed ‘intense’ rainfall on Monday.
The BOM recorded more than 89mm of rain falling in just one hour in the Eurobodalla region, an area popular with tourists during summer.
Advice-level flood warnings were also in place on Tuesday for swathes of the state’s south, including around the Snowy Mountains and Tumut regions.
In the NSW Hunter region, hailstones the size of tennis balls pounded the small town of Rutherford, north of Newcastle.
Michelle Hadley, posting to social media, showed off a photo of her hands cupping large hailstones with the caption ‘Rutherford’.
Responding to Ms Hadley’s post, Caz Hooper posted a photo of a bucketful of hailstones and said her car had been wrecked by the blast of hail.
‘So much massive hail in Rutherford,’ she said.
‘I imagine the insurance companies will be very busy this week! My car is wrecked!’
Brooke Lewins, meanwhile, said she had seen ‘tennis ball-sized’ hail in the town.
Severe thunderstorms have produced large hailstones (pictured) that smashed properties in northern NSW
Hailstones along with damaging winds and heavy rain hit several towns (Rutherford, pictured) across NSW with the wild weather making it’s way to Sydney
Videos posted to the Maitland Community Noticeboard page show a wild hailstone storm smashing the area, with stones and sharp winds tearing into cars and streets.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for large hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall for parts of Gosford/Wyong, Sydney, Wollondilly/Wingecarribee, Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury and Greater Wollongong areas at 3.46pm on Tuesday.
‘Severe thunderstorms likely to produce large hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding were detected near Glenorie, Wisemans Ferry and Douglas Park,’ the weather gurus said.
‘These thunderstorms are moving towards the south to southeast. They are forecast to affect Frenchs Forest, Mona Vale and Terrey Hills by 4.15 pm and Calga, Manly and Umina by 4.45 pm.
‘Four to 5cm hailstones were reported in the Rutherford and Maitland area between at 1.30 and 2pm.’
Tuesday saw conditions ease across much of the country with BOM cancelling multiple weather warnings in NSW and South .
Sydney was forecast to receive only showers, with the possibility of a storm. Similar forecasts were made for Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra.
In the country’s west, advice-level warnings were still in place for a number of bushfires across the southwest. In the state’s north, a heatwave warning was still in place.