Sunday, March 18, 2007
Here's the SMH article
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The alert comes after a huge thunderstorm with severe hail battered Canberra overnight, with hundreds of people calling for emergency help, including drivers trapped in their cars by flash floods.
Schools, universities and government departments have been forced to shut this morning because of the storm.
Heavy rain began falling in the capital city from 9pm as the first of two thunderstorms made its way across the ACT.
But it was the second storm, which senior Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Neale Fraser described as a "supercell thunderstorm", that wreaked havoc across the territory until about 11pm.
"It really intensified as it came into the ACT [with] very intense rainfall and lots of hail," Mr Fraser said.
"It was a huge thunderstorm."
Hail, with stones more than two centimetres in diameter, fell for about 40 minutes, blocking drains and causing flash flooding on major roads.
Susan Fisher, who lives in Reid, said she had never seen anything like it.
"We had severe hail for about 40 minutes. The carport at the front of the house flooded, which ultimately flooded the house. Thank God we have tiles. "We ended up having to put a hole in the ceiling to let the water drain away onto the floor so that the entire ceiling didn't come down."
Russell Cameron, a spokesman for the ACT Emergency Services Agency, said the State Emergency Service received 115 calls and the Fire Brigades received more than 200 calls.
There were no reports of storm-related injuries, he said.
Flash flooding had some drivers in a panic, he said. The drivers had pulled over to the side of the road when the heavy rain began, but flooding quickly occurred, trapping them in their cars.
"The water just started coming up around the wheels and gradually got up to the bottom of the doors, [high] enough for them to be worrying about stepping out into the fast-moving water," he said.
"A lot of people were assisted from their cars after fast moving water had them pinned in their cars. Members of the Fire Brigades went from car to car helping people out."
Mr Cameron said emergency services teams worked overnight to remove hail from the road.
"The hail seemed to compact on the roads. Road maintenance has been working all night to clear the ice off the roads, which is a really bizarre thing to be happening around this time of the year."
The Australian National University is shut today as is the exclusive private school Canberra Grammar along with Campbell High, sections of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and the National Health and Medical Research Council."
Experienced At |11:07 AM|
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