Name: Gold Coast cleans up after powerful Christmas Day storm
Uploaded: 2025-12-26T06:17:56.768Z
Duration: 2 min 21 s
Description: Gold Coast residents and holidaymakers have spent the day cleaning up after a short but powerful Christmas Day storm. The biggest concern for authorities is a massive, unstable crane that snapped in the strong winds.

Gold Coast residents and holidaymakers have spent the day cleaning up after a short but powerful Christmas Day storm. The biggest concern for authorities is a massive, unstable crane that snapped in the strong winds.

Gold Coast

A powerful storm hit the Gold Coast, Queensland, on Christmas Day, resulting in significant damage to homes and public areas. The storm, classified as a microburst by authorities, caused a kitchen roof to collapse, a crane to snap, and left 8,000 homes without power.

Residents and visitors reported intense winds reaching 83 kilometres per hour, forcing evacuations and leaving some without access to essential medical supplies. Cleanup efforts began soon after, with most power restored by the afternoon. The event was compared to previous storms but described as more severe by those affected.

Gold Coast cleans up after powerful Christmas Day storm

A Christmas day unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Jodie and Carl Anderson were removing their homemade lasagna from the oven, ready for a feast, then the roof caved in. And it just went crash behind me and I looked around and there was like I suddenly had a skylight in my kitchen. Now what's left behind resembles a war zone. Very lucky neither of us were in the kitchen five minutes earlier, otherwise we probably wouldn't be standing around. The Bureau is calling it a microburst, but for those in the storm, there was nothing micro about it. I'm 53 and I've never experienced weather like that. Holiday maker Alyssa Hockings was hiding with her daughter from the storm as it swept through Broadwater Tourist Park. My concern was just I have to do whatever I can to protect my daughter. So the rest of it was irrelevant, but yeah, still poles flying everywhere, gazebos rolling down the street. Winds were so strong a crane snapped. Yesterday's wind speed reached 83 kilometres per hour and it was those gusts that damaged this crane. Police are adamant there's nothing the crane operators could have done to fully prevent this. An exclusion zone near the highway and inside the park prevents people from being in the firing line if the crane falls. Medication and medical supplies is the other important issue for us at the moment. We've got people that have had to evacuate that can't access their oxygen tanks. The sound of it breaking rung in the ears of holiday makers. Next minute, you know, there's a big bang and the crane's collapsed. Like a bunch of metal crashing as it fell down, I guess. Now the clean-up begins. We've certainly seen branches across homes, across our footpaths and parks. Some of our parks are heavily impacted. But of course, the Broadwater Tourist Park, the most impacted. 8,000 homes were without power. This afternoon, nearly all restored. It's reminiscent of Christmas Day 2023 where a crane broke in a freak storm in Burley. 2023, we had a bad storm, but it was never as bad as this. For Queenslanders, storms are part of the soundtrack to summer. Christina Pooljack, 10 News.

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