A 59-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on the eastern Gold Coast, south of Brisbane. All help also came too late for a nine-year-old girl who was swept away. Three other people are missing in the Queensland region. A man was fatally injured by a falling tree branch in the town of Caringal, east of Melbourne, in the state of Victoria.
The storm also overturned a boat with ten passengers on board off the coast of Brisbane. Eight people were rescued, and two are still missing. In Queensland, about 100,000 households were without electricity due to damaged cables.
The Australian Meteorological Service warned of heavy rain and thunderstorms for several days. At Christmas, rain caused flooding in the capital, Sydney, submerging streets and buildings. The storm will not subside until Wednesday.
Western Australia is suffering from drought and bushfires. A firefighter has died during an operation near Perth. The young man fell from a fire truck on Tuesday for an unknown reason. Several fires are burning in the state of Western Australia, of which Perth is the capital. There is an unusual heat wave at this time of year.
A report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February 2022 estimates that Australia will be more likely to experience devastating natural phenomena in the future.
