East coast big wet keeps on keeping on

Samantha Lock, Kat Wong and Keira Jenkins | January 3, 2024

Swathes of Australia’s east coast continue to be lashed by wild weather heading south.

Already dealing with the aftermath of a week-long battering of severe weather, Queensland’s southeast faces the prospect of thunderstorms on Wednesday.

Australian Defence Force troops have been deployed across the state to help with recovery efforts while authorities continue work to restore power to about 8000 homes. 

Authorities were hoping to get power restored by Friday but Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Ben Marcus said it’s more likely to be completed on the weekend.

“That’s effectively because we lost a couple of days due to wet weather,” he said.

“We’re not talking one or two power poles, we’re talking hundreds and hundreds so it will take quite a long time to restore that.”

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said compounding weather events meant the state needed more resources.

“But when we had that heavy rainfall hit as well, to compound the situation, that’s when the Defence Force was really needed.”

Hundreds of flood-damaged Queensland roads also remain closed and continuing rain means an increased potential for landslides and fallen debris.

Dozens of people have been rescued from flood waters, with the SES responding to more than 5000 calls for help since Christmas Day.

There have been 17 homes in the southeast totally destroyed by storms with 386 suffering minor and 145 moderate damage.

Although the Bureau of Meteorology says the worst of the wild weather has moved on, isolated showers and thunderstorms are likely across most of Queensland on Wednesday.

Storms and flooding in northern NSW have also kept emergency services working overtime.

A cluster of localities received more than a month’s worth of rain in the 48 hours to Tuesday evening, some centres in the Northern Rivers region copping falls of more than 500mm.

The SES said local crews had completed 28 rescues during the period.

However more falls are on the way.

“Moisture is moving south with the risk of severe storms increasing through parts of NSW and much of Victoria,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Miriam Bradbury said.

Thunderstorms are headed for central Victoria on Wednesday before becoming widespread over the eastern half of the state.

The bureau says there’s the potential for heavy falls, large hail and damaging winds. Melbourne can expect showers and likely a thunderstorm, possibly a severe one.

Lightning stopped flights at the city’s airport on Tuesday evening and almost 50,000 homes and businesses across the state were left without power.

In response to criticism of the bureau for its forecasts during Cyclone Jasper last month, Senator Watt said on Wednesday updates and warnings were provided in the lead-up to flooding and storms but it was hoped to improve emergency text alerts more generally sent out by councils.

“There was a bit of a gap between some of the information the bureau was providing and that information getting out,” he said.