JUST when things started dying down after yesterday’s freak storm, a mini tornado struck at Innes Park.
Cedar St resident Cyndee Monro said the wind picked up about 7pm.
It took out her fence and sent trampolines flying in scenes reminiscent of the mayhem that unfolded in an area centred Avenell Heights earlier in the day.
“I was getting the dogs inside and things were just flying everywhere,” Ms Monro said.
“The trampoline was actually in the powerlines. Ergon took it down,” she said.
“It came from 400m away.”
Another Innes Park resident said the tornado came over the reserve and through their place on Palm St.
“It tossed furniture around and lifted our pool pump cover which is heavy as,” he wrote.
“Almost blew the back sliding doors in.”
In a post on Facebook, Higgins Storm Chasing said there were at least three waterspouts or weak tornadoes across Queensland yesterday.
The post said the potential for waterspouts coming onshore as weak tornadoes causing damage between Gladstone and the Sunshine Coast had been forecast.
“There have now been three confirmed waterspouts / weak tornadoes which have caused damage at Bundaberg, River Heads and Fraser Island,” the post read.
The Bureau of Meteorology said it was unable to confirm if the weather events were tornadoes.
Meteorologist Aditi Sharan told the NewsMail the environment yesterday had been conducive to tornadoes and they may have been what unfolded at Avenell Heights and Innes Park.
“The environment conditions were right for them,” he said.
“The definition is a rapidly rotating column of air.”
Mr Sharan said alternatively strong wind gusts and storms may have formed in a line and caused similar damage.
“This is caused a squall line,” he said.
“Tornadoes are hard to forecast and it’s only once they are formed we can identify them as one.”
Mr Sharah said it was hard to say if more destructive weather was to come but urged people to be aware and secure loose items.
Wild weather also caused significant damage to homes in River Heads in Hervey Bay yesterday.
by Emma Reid
October 3, 2017
