A woman has been killed and several others injured after wild storms wreaked havoc across the city, while tens of thousands of homes and businesses face being without power for days.
The storms brought ‘cyclonic’ conditions as they swept across the Gold Coast on Christmas night, bringing wind gusts of more than 100 km/h.
Many areas of the Gold Coast saw around 40mm of rain dumped in a matter of minutes while some parts of the Hinterland recorded double that.
The storms have caused widespread damage with dozens of trees brought down, along with powerlines.
Image: Facebook/Naomi Fowler
A 59-year-old woman died after a vehicle she was travelling in was struck by a tree.
The woman suffered critical injuries in the incident on Discovery Dr in Helensvale around 9.30pm on Monday night but died at the scene.
A man in his 70s was injured after his tent was struck by a tree off Siganto Drive in Helensvale.
A man in his suffered a head injury after a ceiling collapsed at a home on Wandilla Drive.
A woman was taken to hospital after a tree fell onto her house in Tamborine Mountain while three people were taken to hospital after a tree came down on their car in Oxenford.
Power out for days
Energex has warned it will be days before power can be fully restored to impacted customers across the Gold Coast.
As at 11am on Tuesday, more than 85,000 homes and businesses were still without power, with the vast majority of those in northern areas of the city.
Dozens of sets of traffic lights are also out of action while tram services are also being severely impacted.
Energex says its network has been “demolished” in some areas with more than 500 sections of powerline down with hundreds of power poles either snapped or seriously damaged.
“There’s 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.
Reports of further severe damage are coming through every minute. Until we understand the extent of the repair job, we simply can’t provide estimated restoration timeframes.”
IMAGE: Energex
The storms have also forced the closure of several of the city’s popular theme parks.
Dreamworld, Movie World, Paradise Country and Top Golf have all shut as staff inspect the damage.
Sea World remains open.
