Australia: 10 dead as storm hits Queensland and Victoria

Storms and thunderstorms wreak havoc in eastern Australia. At least ten people were killed in the states of Queensland and Victoria. However, in the West, there are severe droughts and wildfires.

At least ten people have died in severe storms in the Australian states of Queensland and Victoria, according to officials.

According to police, the bodies of three people who capsized a boat in Brisbane the previous day were recently recovered. There were a total of eleven people on board. All eight survivors were taken to hospital and are believed to be in stable condition.

The body of a nine-year-old girl was also found in Brisbane on Tuesday in a flooded storm drain hours earlier. A 59-year-old woman died after a tree fell in nearby Gold Coast on Monday evening. In Gympie, Queensland, rescue workers found a 40-year-old and a 46-year-old in the Mary River.

Tens of thousands of homes are without electricity

There were also severe storms in Victoria in southeastern Australia. In Buchanan, a man and a woman died in a camp due to flash floods. On the same day, a 44-year-old man died in Karingal after a branch fell on his property.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles said storms of this magnitude had never been seen in the region. The damage was in crores. Queensland Police Commissioner Katharina Carroll also spoke of “24 hours of distress as a result of the weather”.

Australian media reported hundreds of buildings damaged by storms, floods or hail. Electricity supply also collapsed in large areas in Queensland. Another 90,000 households are without electricity.

Storms in the east, fire in the west

While severe storms wreak havoc in Australia's east, the continent's west suffers from drought and bushfires. Australia is particularly affected by climate change. A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from February 2022 assumes that the country will be affected by more frequent natural events in the future.