BOLTS FROM THE BLUE
HOW THE STORM TOOK REGION BY SURPRISE: FULL STORY
Freak storm was ‘like a tornado’
Lightning hits leave trail of destruction
Road and air travel delayed as power cut
A TRAIL of splintered trees and flattened fences has been left in the aftermath of a furious weather system likened to a tornado by those at the tempest’s edge.
Retiree Wilma Mason was enjoying yesterday afternoon at her Yorkeys Knob Rd property with little thought for the meteorological extremes of Far North Queensland. Then the thunder started. Before long, she had copped 50mm of rain in less than an hour, gale force winds, smashed trees and a house in desperate need of repairs.
“I lost my beautiful frangipani – I reckon it would be 60odd years old,” she said.
Mrs Mason believed her beloved tree must have been struck by lightning.
“The noise was incredible; it must have hit very close to the house,” she said.
“It was like a tornado – the wind was horrendous; that’s what did the damage.”
Aluminium blinds were ripped off the house by a falling palm tree, and palings along the bottom of the old Queenslander were pulled loose
Down the street, a huge uprooted fig tree blocked the driveway to a home, and a sign outside the Mobil service station was knocked to pieces.
Smithfield resident Amy Ryan was caught in the storm near the service station and described what could easily be mistaken by the untrained eye for a tornado.
She witnessed what looked like a waterspout – a spiralling column of water and spray formed by a whirlwind.
“I was coming down the Yorkeys Knob intake road and I had to pull over because I could not see anything,” she said. “Before I took off again, it was like the Wizard of Oz – it ripped through the Mobil, it was that heavy.”
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Adam Blazak ruled out the tornado theory, but said a waterspout was entirely feasible. “Waterspouts can occur in strong wind areas in a heavily sheared environment – with winds travelling in different directions,” he said.
“It’s obviously not as powerful as a tornado, but the stronger ones can certainly kick up a bit of a fuss on the ground.”
Dark storm clouds had been building all day over Walshs Pyramid near Gordonvale but the ferocity of the squall caught meteorologists and the city by surprise.
It was just as feral in the city’s south.
In White Rock, 10-year-old Nathalia Freeman was coming to grips with her own loss.
“After school I saw a big tree that had fallen down,” she said. “It was me and my friends’ favourite tree ever. One of my friends was crying when she saw it.”
At Yorkeys, Mrs Mason took it in her stride as she waited out the power loss.
She just hoped the sugarcane around her property would stand back up for the farmers’ sake.
“Looks like I’ve got a cleanup on my hands,” she said.