At least six people were killed and three others went missing after severe thunderstorms battered Australias eastern states over the Christmas holidays, with thousands suffering power outages in Queensland.6 dead, 3 missing in Australias Christmas stormsThe deaths of six people were confirmed by Victoria and Queensland Police. Among the deceased, the youngest was a nine-year-old girl who local media reported was swept away in a flooded stormwater drain.Meanwhile, the police initiated the search for two people missing after the boat they were on capsized just south of Green Island near Brisbane. The officials are also looking for a 46-year-old woman who was caught in flood waters north of Brisbane in Gumpie.Grieving about the tragedy, Gumpie Mayor Glen Hartwig told the media, “Its absolutely tragic news for families in this region at Christmas time.”What happened on Christmas Australias eastern states witnessed severely hit deadly thunderstorms on December 25 and December 26 bringing large hailstones, high winds and torrential rains.Amid this, the river floods and high winds blew off roads and brought down trees in some worst-affected areas.Is the situation alarmingThe situation in the regions is still alarming as the Bureau of Meteorology still has some minor flood warnings in place in the eastern states and further rain is forecast.On Wednesday, Queenslands state-owned Energex said that around 86,000 households remained without electricity following the storms. Taking it to X, Energex said that it had sustained severe damage to its network with more than 800 power lines down, and expected it to take days to restore power to some people.Severe damage to Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, Logan network incl 800+ powerlines down. 120k customers without power & will take days to restore some. Watch for & report fallen powerlines ASAP to 000. When we have restoration timeframes - Outage Finder: https://t.co/l4u7arLkSb pic.twitter.com/95qnqST6uT— Energex (@Energex) December 25, 2023The storms come after former Tropical Cyclone Jasper made landfall earlier this month causing flooding and widespread damage in Queensland.
