Hail horror for mum and daughter caught in storm
A Queensland mother and her infant daughter have been pelted by hailstones after her vehicle’s windows were smashed while she was caught on a highway during Thursday’s severe storms and tornados.
Fiona Simpson posted images of her injuries on Facebook and recounted her story of taking the brunt of the storm while on the D’Aguilar Highway, about 200 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, with her baby and grandmother in the vehicle.
‘‘I’ve learnt my lesson today, never drive in a hail storm!’’ she wrote.
Simpson said they parked on the side of the highway as the storm intensified, then hail blew out the windows.
‘‘I covered my infant with my body to stop her from getting badly injured.
‘‘My entire back, arms and head are badly bruised.
‘‘I’m just so relieved that my daughter and grandmother are all right.
‘‘Please, please be careful in this storm season. I know I’ll be sore tomorrow, does anyone know of a cream or ointment that will help with the bruising?’’
Super-cell storms and tornados have torn roofs from homes and destroyed crops, leaving a trail of destruction in southern Queensland.
Farmers in the middle of harvest season have lost their crops, and are now looking at huge financial losses.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the South Burnett region and other parts of the southeast copped the brunt of three severe storms, two of them super-cell storms, with two tornados also sighted.
At Blackwater, in central Queensland, winds gusted to 144kmh, a wind speed associated with a Category 2 cyclone. The winds tore roofs off homes and businesses and hailstones as large as tennis balls destroyed wheat, barley, melon and stone fruit crops, downed power lines, and cut roads.
Queensland Dairy Farmers president Brian Tessmann said the storm’s fury at his Coolabunia farm was like nothing he’d ever seen, with winds tearing the roofs from his home and dairy.
‘‘The roof came off and it was bedlam from there, trying to hold doors shut, and water coming through the ceiling, and things flying through the air. It was quite something,’’ he told the ABC.
‘‘I saw it leaving out the window as it went in a couple of large pieces.’’
State Opposition Leader Deb Frecklinton said many farmers in her electorate of Nanango suffered enormous losses, having endured similarly devastating storms on Boxing Day last year.
‘‘The human side of this is that people will lose their jobs today because there is no fruit left to pick,’’ she said.
‘‘This was a huge storm. Many homes will be unliveable. For the farmers in particular, the people who have just got roofs back on after Boxing Day, this is just so sad.’’ – Fairfax/AAP