Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred LIVE updates: Storm finally makes landfall as strong winds batter Brisbane; major flooding possible for Lismore
The thunder started in Hervey Bay before dawn. And it lasted hours.
“It was a really strange event this morning because the thunder lasted for about four hours, non-stop,” says resident John Wilson.
“You know, usually thunder lasts for 10 to 15 minutes. But it kept going and kept going, hour on hour.
“We got huge lightning cracks and then we started getting insanely heavy rain.”
By 7am, the intense rain was lashing the coastal town about three hours’ north of Brisbane on Queensland’s Fraser Coast.
Flash flooding swamped cars, houses and the local Woolworths supermarket in Pialba. People had to abandon their cars near the Officeworks store, Wilson said.
Two people had to be rescued from a car in Urangan about 7am.
“They had to at one point evacuate the police station,” Wilson said, adding that prisoners in the watchhouse also had to be evacuated.
