Thousands of Alice Springs residents are without power and buildings have been damaged after intense storms ripped through the Northern Territory, with more wild weather forecast.
A line of thunderstorms tore through Alice Springs on Monday, with the region smashed by wind gusts reaching up to 125km/h in some areas.
The storms were so intense they ripped the roofs off buildings, smashed into cars and homes, and left thousands without power.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Sarah Scully told NewsWire this was the first taste of the severe storm season, which runs between October and April each year.
“That’s the time that we tend to see the more energetic storms starting to warm up as we move towards summer,” she said.
“There’s greater daytime heating to put energy into the atmosphere and a lot more moisture available in the warmer temperatures, as water evaporates from the oceans gets drawn over Australia by the heat troughs that develop.”
‘Scariest things’: Power outages, businesses damaged
Alice Springs Mayor Daniel Rochford described the chaos that unfolded as the storm tore through the city.
“I’d have to say probably one of the scariest things I’ve experienced. I was actually in the middle of the storm, driving from my work to my home when it hit,” he told the ABC.
“I had trees falling around me, around my car, I could not see the road in front of me.”
About 9000 residents were plunged into darkness on Monday night, with NT Treasurer Bill Yan assuring locals that emergency crews were working to restore power.
“There are going to be many households without power tonight, please be patient as PWC work to restore power,” he said on Monday.
“Relief crews are on their way to us in the morning to keep working through the outages.”
Mr Yan said almost 4000 people remained in the dark on Tuesday morning.
“As of this morning, an additional 4000 homes have had power restored leaving another 4000 to go,” he said.
“Crews are on their way from Darwin to assist this morning. An absolutely stellar effort.”
In a statement, SecureNT said more power outages were expected throughout the day due to extensive damage caused by the destructive storm.
“Power outages are expected to continue, as assessments and restoration works must first be undertaken,” it said.
“There are many fallen trees and powerlines down across the region. Stay away from fallen lines, they may still be live.”
Footage from the storm reveals the damage caused by the blistering winds and heavy rainfall, with trees smashing into cars and tearing down parts of buildings.
Mr Rochford told the ABC the clean-up process had begun in the town, but there was more to be done.
“I think most of yesterday afternoon, while we were in daylight hours, everyone was out with their chainsaws, cleaning up, and the work that all the emergency services and power and electrical teams have been working overnight, tirelessly, to get power back restored,” he said.
“As we still talk at this moment, there’s still a significant amount of houses without power and that’s certainly something that’s obviously a key priority at the moment.”
Schools without power
Government schools will remain open in Alice Springs with the exception of Acacia Hills School, which has extensive damage from water ingress, fallen trees and impacted infrastructure.
Schools without power include Alice Springs School of the Air, Braitling Primary School, Centralian Middle School, Gillen Primary School and Bradshaw Primary School.
Private schools will also remain open on Tuesday, including Araluen Christian College, Living Waters, OLSH – Bath St and St Philip’s College.
But non-government schools OLSH Catholic College (Sadadeen and Traeger campuses), Yipirinya School and Steiner School are closed.
East coast smashed
It won’t be just Alice Springs bearing the brunt of wild weather this week.
As a broad band of thunderstorms pass over the NT, the bureau forecast it will push east to the northern half of NSW and South East Queensland.
Impacted areas include the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and Port Macquarie.
“They could all see a severe thunderstorm today … with heavy rainfall damaging winds and a large hail risk,” Ms Scully told NewsWire.
Despite Sydney experiencing one of the hottest days of spring so far, with temperatures climbing to 35C, the warm weather is set to be replaced with a frosty fall in temperatures and plenty of storms as a southerly change gushes through the state.
“So a huge drop from yesterday compared to today and that’s thanks to that gusty southerly change,” she said.
“That will continue moving up the northern half of NSW coast (on Tuesday) and be reaching South East Queensland (Wednesday) morning.”
Victoria’s warm conditions were also short-lived, with a cold snap barging into the state on Monday evening and leaving a sprinkle of showers.
“It’s also cold enough for snow about alpine areas in Victoria as well,” Ms Scully said.
These chilly temperatures are set to move on after a few days and will be replaced by warmer conditions.
“Below average conditions are expected to persist across Victoria really until Thursday, then it will gradually start to warm across southern parts as we move into the weekend,” she said.