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10-minute storm in Australia likened to category-3 cyclone

Xinhua, October 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australians mopped up on Wednesday from a "supercell storm", likened to a category-3 cyclone that hit parts of eastern Australia for just 10 minutes.

The storm ravaged Fernvale, a small town 60 km west of Brisbane, on Tuesday evening with local authorities estimating four houses now uninhabitable and storm damage to a further 60 from ferocious winds that peeled off roofing iron and collapsed trees.

"There's been a bit of vision of just how intense it was on a small front and so for people that were in that intense area, for them it was like being in something akin to a category-3 cyclone for a short period of time," State Emergency Services acting commissioner Peter Jeffrey told Fairfax Media on Wednesday.

Local residents have described the storm as "terrifying" and "so violent and so scary", though it lasted only 10 minutes. Endit