A Christmas Eve storm killed a woman in eastern Australia, where around 120,000 homes are without power, authorities said Tuesday.
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A 59-year-old woman died after a falling tree caused by gusts in the Gold Coast city region (east), said Jaye Newton of the emergency ambulance service.
“It was like a disaster area, there were trees all over the road,” he told reporters.
The storm knocked out power lines around Brisbane, the regional capital of Queensland, said local electricity supplier Energex, which noted “catastrophic and widespread damage, on the scale of a cyclone. »
“More than 800 power lines disabled, 120,000 customers without electricity, it will take days to restore service,” the company wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The Australian Meteorological Service is forecasting another severe episode of thunderstorms, with gusts, hailstones and heavy precipitation, for Tuesday.
They have issued a flood alert for a river approximately 40 kilometers from the Gold Coast.