At least nine people have died after Christmas and Boxing Day storms pounded Australia’s eastern seaboard, including two women who were washed through a stormwater drain, police said.
Thunderstorms and destructive winds have in recent days battered the states of Victoria and Queensland – capsizing boats, sparking flash floods and tearing down concrete-based powerlines. The storms followed heavy flooding in Far North Queensland in mid-December.
The bodies of a 40-year-old woman and a 46-year-old woman were found in the Mary River in the Queensland town of Gympie. They were among three women swept into the flooded river through a stormwater drain on Tuesday. Another 46-year-old woman managed to save herself.
The women had been “exploring” the big stormwater drain, police said. By Wednesday police divers had recovered the bodies of two of the women. The third was washed onto the banks of a nearby river.
The body of a nine-year-old girl was found on Tuesday in the Queensland capital Brisbane hours after she disappeared in a flooded stormwater drain.
Also near Brisbane, three men were killed after a 39-foot yacht with 11 people aboard capsized in rough weather in Moreton Bay.
Ambulances took the eight survivors to hospital in stable conditions.
A 59-year-old woman was killed by a falling tree at Queensland’s Gold Coast south of Brisbane on Monday night.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll blamed “extraordinarily difficult weather” for the deaths.
“It has been a very tragic 24 hours due to the weather,” Ms Carroll told reporters.
