"Mini Tornado Hits Western Australia"

"A FEROCIOUS storm has ripped through the south-west of Western Australia, with severe winds and torrential rain closing roads, damaging buildings, felling trees, bringing down power lines and closing schools.

Although no injuries have been reported, hundreds of State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers have been called out to incidents across Perth and further south, with thousands of residents waking up to severe damage.

The town of Bunbury, 180km south of Perth, appears to have been the worst affected by the line of severe thunderstorms, which swept across the state's south-western coastline about 6am WST (0800 AEST) today.

Staff at the town's ABC radio station were lucky to escape with their lives after a 38m crane collapsed on their building at the height of the storm.

Bicton, 15km south of Perth, was also battered, with the suburb's primary school badly affected, losing six roofs from buildings and suffering damage which could take weeks to repair.

The main problems were fallen power lines, trees across roads and fallen into roofs, and collapsed ceilings.

Perth's main roads were also severely affected, with a crane left in danger of toppling onto a highway, as well as debris, blacked out traffic lights and flooded suburban thoroughfares banking up traffic.

Wind gusts peaked at 142km/h at Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Perth, and reached 100km/h in Perth suburbs."



Oh my! I couldn't believe my ears when i heard the news earlier. "Mini-tornado"? In WA? Apparently it occurred in nearby Applecross, Bunbury and some other places whose names I cannot remember, uprooting many trees and devastating many homes, causing shock to the many residents whose homes and shops have been destroyed. Just think! It could have happened in Perth itself, it could have swept across Murdoch, Kardinya(where i stay!), etc...

I wonder what would've happened if the mini tornado hit us...? We were so close man... Thank God.