Freak storms have lashed the east coast of Australia, sending roofs flying from homes and dumping a month’s worth of rain in just half-an-hour.
Families were forced to barricade themselves in bedrooms in the New South Wales Hunter Valley as the storm tore through the region on Sunday afternoon.
‘In the first 10 minutes of the storm we had about 32 requests for assistance,’ the SES’s Simon Merrick told Channel Nine.
Freak storms have lashed the east coast of Australia, sending roofs flying from homes and dumping a month’s worth of rain in just half-an-hour
Families were left homeless in Singleton in the New South Wales Hunter Valley after a storm tore through the region on Sunday afternoon
At least seven homes had roofs torn apart during the storm
‘Seven of those were for houses that had displaced roofs, in partial states or full states… There are several families that have been displaced as a result of the storm.’
Alison Bodiam sheltered her two children under a mattress after the roof of her home in Singleton was torn off.
‘My little girl said, ”Mummy are we going to die?” and I said ”no darling we’re going to be fine”,’ she told Nine News.
‘It’s really hard to say that when you actually don’t know if it’s going to be okay, so we’re just really, really grateful and thankful that no-one got hurt.
‘We realised how bad it was when we saw trees just going down in the paddocks as it blew over and about two seconds later, we watched the roof go from above us.’
Residents now face a massive clean up, with some homes expected to be beyond repair will need to be demolished.
In a separate storm, Queensland was hit by flash flooding on Monday night after over 100mm of rain fell in some areas in little over an hour
Photos from the scene reveal the shocking extent of the damage
Several home now face the prospect of being demolished
Meanwhile, Queensland was hit by flash flooding on Monday night after over 100mm of rain fell in some areas in little over an hour.
The Gold Coast hinterland region received nearly 150mm of rain throughout the night.
Areas surrounding Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta saw a 50mm downpour in just 30 minutes.
Cars were pictured attempting to drive through streets inundated with water during the storm.
Families were left homeless after the brutal storm battered Singleton in the New South Wales Hunter region
‘In the first 10 minutes of the storm approaching we had about 32 requests for assistance in those initial 10 minutes,’ the SES’s Simon Merrick said
It comes after people in the north of the state were told to brace for a ‘scary’ tropical cyclone which could form in the Coral Sea by Wednesday.
said there is a ‘very high chance’ of a cyclone forming in the Coral Sea by Wednesday.
‘It’s looking pretty scary… One of the outlooks is for it to cross the coast then swing south-east and cross south of Bundaberg,’ David Taylor, from East Coast Weather, told the Townsville Bulletin.
More to come.
Storms have swept across the east coast of Australia, with fears a cyclone may soon form in the Coral Sea
This photo shows a damaged property in Singleton in the New South Wales Hunter Valley region