Man dies under falling tree as storms take their toll
A man was killed by a falling tree during severe storms that left tens of thousands of people without power.
The 76-year-old man died after being struck by a tree in the Glenworth Valley on the NSW Central Coast on Wednesday afternoon.
More than 1,000 calls for help were issued in NSW alone after severe weather caused scores of roofs to tear off buildings in the state’s central west.
The town of Nevertire, west of Dubbo, felt some of the worst of the major storms to hit eastern Australia; Lightning strikes caused walls to collapse at one property and six others lost their roofs.
At least 120,000 homes in NSW are without power after wind gusts of up to 119 kilometers per hour were felt on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Tens of thousands of people were left without electricity in Queensland as the superstorm, which lasted for two consecutive days, was declared a disaster.
The damage bill from the storms is expected to run into the millions, with the Insurance Council of Australia confirming claims have reached 27,800 and continuing to rise.
Crews are working around the clock to repair the damage, but approximately 29,000 people are still without power; The hardest-hit areas include Moreton Bay, Noosa and the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane.
Brisbane was hit brunt of the second wave of damage from the storm system that stretched south on Tuesday night, dumping up to 110mm of rain in some areas.
Large parts of Queensland also continue to suffer from heatwave conditions; temperatures are six to 10 degrees above average for November.
There were 1,145 calls for help to the NSW State Emergency Service by 3.30pm on Wednesday; 622 of these were in metropolitan Sydney alone.
“These incidents mainly involved trees falling, power lines being knocked down as well as damage to roofs,” said NSW SES Deputy Commissioner Sean Kearns.
“We would ask people to avoid unnecessary journeys and drive appropriately when leaving work this afternoon.”
Paramedics and SES workers also worked to save a man in his twenties who suffered head and leg injuries when a tree fell on him at a park in Ophir, north of Orange, also in central western NSW.
Moisture combined with high temperatures and troughs to create storms along the east coast, with the threat of more storms continuing.
“There is also a high risk of severe storms that could produce giant hail and destructive winds,” said bureau meteorologist Sarah Scully.
Meanwhile, a cold front moving across southern parts of the country is expected to trigger stormy conditions and damaging winds across parts of South Australia and Victoria.
“This means catching the south-eastern parts of South Australia, possibly reaching some of the southern Adelaide suburbs and then crossing most of Victoria, including Melbourne,” Ms Scully said.
Former tropical cyclone Fina was downgraded overnight and is impacting northern parts of Western Australia’s Kimberley region with heavy rainfall and the risk of flash floods.
“Even though it has lost the cyclonic category, we will continue to see the impact of this former tropical cyclone over the next day or two,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury said.
The cleanup continues in the Northern Territory after Fina felled trees, caused power outages and damaged buildings as it wreaked havoc over the weekend as a category three system.
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