Supercell hail strike on rural town of Yengarie sparks scenes of 'nuclear winter'

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Yengarie resembles an apocalyptic wasteland more than a tropical Queensland landscape after a supercell hail storm ripped through it on Thursday.

Trees have been stripped of their bark and leaves, the forest floor is littered with the carcasses of small birds, and residents in one of the hardest hit areas, Bridge Road, are suffering with losses of property and farm animals.

Bridge Road resident Jade Doyle has buried her beloved miniature horse, Candy, after it escaped the mangled remains of its stable, only to be crushed by a tree in the field.

That any of the 25 horses at the property 'Lilleshall' survived is a small miracle, owner Trinity Dunning said.

She described the terror of the phone being cut to her two daughters who huddled under a table at home while she desperately tried to get back from work.

"They were mucking around outside with their horses and I said 'go inside, there's going to be a storm' and then within 15 minutes it was crazy," she said.

"They were inside on the phone, just screaming. I couldn't hear them. I didn't know if someone was dead. I had no idea what was going on.

"Jade rang me too and then her phone cut out. The last thing she said was her car is moving across the road — and she was parked.

"Then I tried calling back and couldn't get anyone. The girls were huddled inside under the table. It was awful, terrible. It was so scary."

When Ms Dunning did arrive back home it was dark but she could see power lines were down, tin roofs had been thrown 50 metres away, and she had to walk over dead animals to get to the house.

In the light of day she was incredulous there had not been more injuries.

"One of the shed roofs had landed on a stable. A couple of the ponies were inside the stables that were mangled," she said.

"Jade's car was a write-off from hail. One of our dogs was trapped in the shed and we had to dig him out.

"It looks like a different country. The trees are stripped bare. The next morning the ice from the hail was ankle deep. Total destruction. Unbelievable."

Neighbour Roland Harris was also terrified that his wife Carole and children Morgan, 23, and Ceridwen, 17, were in the storm's path.

"They were sheltering in the office, which is in the middle of the house. No windows so it was safe for them," he said.

"The sound of those hailstones on the tin roof would have been horrific."

Mr Harris was only a two minute drive from home when the storm hit.

"I thought the windscreen was going to cave in. I had to stop on the side of the road and there were branches coming down everywhere. I just cowered in my seat expecting the car to implode at any minute," he said.

"It passed and I was able to drive on a bit further, but there were trees down and power lines down so I had to walk home.

"I had to walk through hail stones up to my ankles."

Mr Harris said the family was coping with a fuel generator for the time being while he waited for power to be reconnected, using a wood fire for warmth as the rain continued to batter down.

Other neighbours sustained major damage too, Mr Harris said, with the picturesque neighbourhood now resembling a disaster zone.

"You see pictures of a nuclear holocaust. The trees look like that. There's nothing left of them," he said.

"But those things can be replaced. Most things can be replaced. But human life is another thing.

"Luckily we are all okay, so that's the main thing."

Topics: storm-event, weather, storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, animals, yengarie-4650, maryborough-4650, maroochydore-4558, qld