Over the past few days, places in Queensland like Sunshine Coast, Tewantin and Noosa Heads have borne the brunt of extreme heat resulting in bushfires, causing hazardous living conditions for the inhabitants. A brutal hailstorm that followed, also could not bring temperatures down.
Jaspreet Kaur, who works in a nursing home in Tewantin and lives in Sunshine Coast, tells SBS Punjabi how "challenging and intimidating it has been in the past few days."
“The air around us was filled with smoke. We couldn’t step out as breathing was difficult,” says Ms. Kaur, referring to the bushfires.
Elaborating on the difficult living conditions created by the weather extremes, especially due the bushfires that continue to rage across Queensland, this healthcare worker says that an aged care home in Tewantin had to be evacuated on November 8.
“The smoke was so thick that the staff and residents of our neighbouring aged care home, who anyway have respiratory problems, had to be evacuated. The aged care home that I work in, was also put on alert but not required to evacuate,” she adds.
She goes on to recount how she and her young family barely escaped a very rough hailstorm that followed.
A car windshield with damaged sustained from hail stones in south-east Queensland. Source: Zac Lemon/Facebook
“We had plans to go out on Sunday but dropped the idea as we have a newborn baby, who needed attention at that time. That saved us and our car from being hit by hailstones the size of cricket or tennis balls,” Ms. Kaur says, adding that residents of Sunshine Coast are in the process of claiming insurance due to the damage to their cars caused by the sudden hailstorm.
She also mentions that contrary to expectations, this cold blow didn’t douse the fires raging around the Noosa Heads area.
She recalls that during a recent phone call to a colleague who lives in Tewantin, she heard the fire personnel knock at her door.
“She was advised to leave Tewantin until further notice. She had guests over at that time, who had difficulty breathing and they had to be taken 45-minutes away to restore their breath. It was so bad that day,” says Ms. Kaur.
Ms Kaur says this is the first time she has seen water-bombing as a firefighting remedy.
"I had never seen a fire this uncontrolled. The emergency services had to call for help from neighbouring states who deployed their aerial firefighters to help us out," says Ms. Kaur.
The weather forecast for Sunshine Coast and Noosa Heads is expected to remain under 30 degrees in the coming days, with a minimal chance of rain.
Click on the player at the top of the page to listen to this interview in Punjabi.
