Original story by Alyse Edwards at ABC News
Emergency crews were kept busy in Hervey Bay in south-east Queensland overnight after winds caused by a waterspout damaged homes.
Police say strong winds ripped through Urangan about 3:00am (AEST), knocking down trees and ripping roofs off two houses on King Street.
Senior Constable Jules Tyson says power has been disconnected at both properties and State Emergency Service crews will help clean up the damage this morning.
“We’ve experienced a lot of the waterspouts in the Hervey Bay area in the last couple of days with the weather – we believe it’s one of those that’s crossed over onto the land,” he said.
Weather bureau spokesman Rick Threlfall says waterspouts can be quite hazardous.
Mr Threlfall says the spouts are difficult to forecast.
He says they generally stay over the water and very rarely come onto shore.
“Winds can get up to 100 kilometres an hour,” he said.
“They still produce very strong winds in a very localised area.
“I think this only affected a couple of houses on one street, so it was very very localised, but they can still cause a fair bit of damage.”
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