Queensland Storm Leaves Skip Bins Full of Food at Supermarkets
Major grocery stores in Jimboomba, south-east Queensland, threw out skip bins full of fresh food after a cyclonic supercell cut power. Logan took the worst of the storm, with roofs torn off homes, 22 schools shut and a second wave of storms forecast.
Major grocery stores in Jimboomba, south-east Queensland, threw out skip bins full of fresh food after a cyclonic supercell storm knocked out power across the region. Thousands of homes and businesses were still without electricity, and a second wave of storms was forecast.
The storm hit with winds of up to 125km/hr. More than a dozen roofs were ripped off homes.
Logan at the centre
Logan was at the epicentre. A 15-minute burst of wind left the city bruised and battered, with metal roof sheets turned into missiles that crushed cars and littered footpaths.
"Logan's woken up after seeing category one cyclonic winds come through our city last night, with over 130,000 lightning strikes," Logan Mayor Jon Raven said.
Raven said more than 14 houses had lost their roofs or suffered such bad structural damage that nobody could live in them. One belonged to Roselyn Giblan, who had lived there for almost 50 years. "It's been an open house to my family, it's devastating," she said through sobs.
Power and closures
In Logan, 450 power lines came down, leaving more than 80,000 homes in the dark. In Marsden, about 25,000 homes and businesses remained without power, down from about 82,000 at the peak of the storm.
Energex's Rob Stork said the company expected "the vast majority of customers to have power back later tonight". Some people in the worst-hit areas could wait longer, he said. Crews were rebuilding entire sections of the network and clearing debris ahead of the second storm.
A number of schools, petrol stations and grocery stores had to close. Saint Bernadine's in Regents Park was one of 22 schools shut, so staff spent the day cleaning up instead of teaching.
Food thrown out
Some traders saw the outage coming. Darren Hannigan, who runs a butcher shop in Park Ridge, stripped his shelves when he feared it would lose power. "Could have cost us thousands and thousands of dollars if we didn't make the call," he said.
Jimboomba was less prepared. A number of major grocery stores there were left throwing out skip bins full of fresh food.
Residents described near-misses in almost every suburb. Leah Roney said a tree in her front yard missed her house by two inches. "I'm still in shock," she said.
In Marsden, Dylan Pettiford's roof stayed intact, but a roof from a neighbour a couple of streets away crashed into his house. Chris Simpson, of Regents Park, said his whole roof "jumping down the street" after he heard wood splintering. He sheltered inside with his children and dogs.
