February 15, 2018
Two storm cells that swept through the South Burnett on Wednesday evening brought rain, hail, strong winds and left widespread areas without power.
It was the wild winds that caused the most problems for residents.
A wind gust of 119km/h was recorded in Kingaroy at 6:20pm but rainfall totals were nowhere near as impressive, with 30mm recorded in Nanango, 14-16mm in Kingaroy, nothing in Wondai, and 9.5mm in Windera.
An Ergon Energy spokesman said there were more than 20 fallen powerlines in the Nanango and Kingaroy areas.
About 6000 homes and businesses in the South Burnett had their power supply cut at different times during the evening..
Crews worked through the night to restore power to most customers, although about 500 Ergon customers in Nanango remained without power on Thursday morning.
Power is expected to be restored progressively during the day.
A major outage affecting about 450 Nanango customers is expected to be restored about 6pm.
There were multiple reports of fallen powerlines around Nanango, including a tree on the line at the intersection of Deakin Crescent and Chester Street, and lines down in Grey and Gipps streets.
At the height of the storm, a large tree crushed one vehicle, badly damaged another and clipped the side of a caravan at the Nanango Home Park.
SES volunteers were busy clearing the mess on Thursday afternoon.
Other reports from around Nanango include fences and water tanks blown down, sheds damaged and trees struck by lightning.
In Kingaroy, a powerline brought down near the River Road / Kingaroy Street roundabout blacked out the eastern half of the town, including the industrial estate.
About 1100 Ergon Energy customers had their power interrupted at 6:23pm when a large tree fell on the high and low voltage power lines. Power was restored to all customers by 2:15am.
Across the region, branches and trees were blown across roads making driving conditions very dangerous.
Tree branches falling on to powerlines also caused problems for about 1500 Ergon Energy customers in Ellesmere, Haly Creek, Inverlaw, Kingaroy and Kumbia, who had their power supply interrupted from about 6:30pm to about 9:45pm.
And there were a couple of 15-minute outages affecting about residents in Abbeywood, Boondooma, Brigooda, Durong, Durong South, Hivesville, Kinleymore, Mondure, Mount Mceuen, Proston and Speedwell that were restored without crews needing to complete any repairs.
As at 1:30pm, the Bureau Of Meteorology is forecasting another possible thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon.
