Terrifying new vision of moment freak tornado first hits Aussie town
New footage has emerged showing the moment a surprise tornado ripped through a city in Western Australia.
Up to 50 kids were inside the Bunbury Police and Community Youth Centre in Bunbury, about two hours south of Perth, when the storm hit on Friday afternoon.
Paramedics also rushed two people to hospital after the freak storm passed through the area.
Dramatic footage from the scene caught by local Ben Della-Sale shows torrential rainfall, trees uprooted and the roof of the community centre caved in.
More than 140 properties have been damaged and dozens of people have been displaced.
A massive clean-up operation is now underway as workers attend to the power lines, phone lines and gas mains that were damaged and volunteers work to clean up the tree branches scattered around the city.
New footage has emerged showing the moment a freak tornado ripped through Bunbury, about two hours south of Perth, in Western Australia
Dozens of kids were inside the Bunbury Police and Community Youth Centre, south of Perth, when the storm hit on Friday afternoon
Dramatic pictures from the scene show how the roof and part of a wall were severely damaged by the fierce winds
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather alert for the area at 4.27pm, predicting thunderstorms with damaging winds and rainfall that could cause flash flooding
Mr Della-Sale told the ABC he saw tree trunks being uprooted by the gale-force winds.
‘We could see the debris and as it got closer I could see palms getting up-rooted, twisted off, [there were] massive pieces of tin in the air, just thousands of them,’ he said.
‘We just about drove into fallen power lines on the road. And there were other people on the other side screaming out of the car saying stop. And then we noticed the power lines in the water.’
Local Ben Della-Sale recorded the initial stages of the surprise tornado and described seeing trees being uprooted by the strong winds
Mr Della-Stale ended up roughly 200m from the youth centre where at least six ambulances were sent after a wall caved in and the roof collapsed.
One woman in her 30s was confirmed as being injured and she was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
A man was also taken to hospital from the Bunbury Regional Prison, which was in the path of the tornado.
‘An injured prisoner has been taken to hospital after a number of accommodation blocks in the minimum security section of the prison were damaged,’ a Department of Justice spokeswoman said.
State Emergency Service incident controller Chris Widmer said that volunteers had been working through the night to attend to the mess left in the tornado’s path.
More than 1,300 people are still without power thanks to the damage done to the city’s power lines which is likely to extend well into Sunday.
A massive clean-up operation is now underway to clean up the power lines, tree branches and debris that was scattered by the storm
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services first reported that a tornado had hit Bunbury at about 4pm.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather alert for the area at 4.27pm, predicting thunderstorms with damaging winds and rainfall that could cause flash flooding.
More than 33,000 homes were sent into darkness amid power outages while the SES has received at least 50 calls for help.
More than 140 homes were damaged and dozens of people have been displaced
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