A 10-year-old girl is fighting for life after she was struck by a lightning bolt during severe storms in southeast Queensland.
Massive hail, powerful wind gusts, and more than 30,000 lightning strikes were recorded as a severe thunderstorm swept through the region on Saturday.
Critical care paramedics took the 10-year-old girl in a critical condition to Sunshine Coast University Hospital after she was struck by lightning at a home at 2.20pm.
After 4pm, a man in his 60s was struck by lightning at a home in Biggera Waters, in the northern suburbs of the Gold Coast.
Paramedics rushed him to hospital in a stable condition.
Lightning was not the only cause for a string of electrocutions over the weekend, with fallen power lines creating a deadly hazard on the state’s roads.
On Friday night, 30-year-old Bala Naga Manendra Kopparthi was helping to move a tree branch that had fallen onto the road at Murarrie, in Brisbane’s east, when he was electrocuted by a fallen power line.
He died at the scene.
There are more than 3700 homes still without power in the state’s southeast on Sunday morning after storms rolled through overnight.
The worst impacted suburbs are Conondale, Kin Kin, Mount Mee and Witta.
Large hail measuring up to 4 cm – or as big as a cricket ball- rained down on the Sunshine and Fraser coasts overnight as powerful wind gusts of up to 125km/h whipped through.
As of 6.30pm, a severe storm warning had extended over 400km of coastline between Noosa and Gladstone.
The bureau had warned a “very dangerous storm with intense rainfall that may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding” risked hitting the region, bringing damaging winds, large hailstones, and heavy rainfall.
It’s the latest in a spate of wild weather to lash the Sunshine State, after freak storms caused widespread damage across Brisbane and the wider region on Friday night.
“Intense rain is exacerbating ongoing major flooding across Far North Queensland this morning,” the Bureau of Meteorology said in a post to X on Sunday morning.
Nearly 500mm has fallen in parts of the region in the last 24 hours, with flood warnings current on the Herbert, Murray, Daintree, Mulgrave and Johnston Rivers.
A major flood warning is in place for the Mulgrave River where a further 200 to 300mm rainfall has been observed in the 12 hours to 8am.
“Heavy rain is forecast to continue for the remainder of the weekend before easing later Monday,” the bureau said.
A major flood peak was observed at Peets Bridge and at Gordonvale on early Sunday morning, with renewed river level rises possible as rain continues.
A “very dangerous” thunderstorm is possible as a warning is issued for intense rainfall in the Cairns region, which may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding.
Locations likely to be impacted are Cairns, Yarrabah and Redlynch.
Already 146mm of rain was recorded in just 3 hours at Myola, north-west of Cairns.
Ex-tropical Cyclone Jasper may still return
The former cyclone has reached the far eastern waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria, just south of Kowanyama, as of Saturday night.
The storm system is weak and there is a low risk it will redevelop before the middle of next week.
“At this stage there still is a moderate risk of redevelopment from Thursday through to Saturday,” the bureau said in an update.
“There remains uncertainty around the strength of the system from the middle of week. “
The likelihood of the system moving back into the northern Coral Sea late in the week has increased.
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