Geez, what a ride!
I posted the other day about extreme weather we were having in SE Australia. What a day it ended up being; half the state was on fire, the other half hit by thunderstoms and dry lightening strikes that left a trail of devastation.
Like this.... two transmission towers blown over
The local power station was affected by falling trees and hit by lightening strikes and went offline. Half a million households without power. All across the state trees were down, one farmer was killed and an insane amount of damage was caused by these small but very violent line storms.
My town was on the edge and didn't suffer much damage, however power was out for 24 hrs.
On Tuesday evening, people in South Gippsland expected a regular thunderstorm as a heavy and dark cloud blanketed the region, but the reality was much more horrific.
Hail bucketed the region and strong winds savaged townships and bushland, destroying houses and tearing down trees.
The storm killed a 50-year-old dairy farmer in Darlimurla who was riding a quad bike while moving cattle when he and several cows were hit about 6pm.
In a neighbouring town, Mirboo North, locals united to help clear debris and provide support as tens of houses had their roofs torn off.
More... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/south-gippsland-storm-rain-weather-mirboo-houses-destroyed/103464648
We lost not only power and internet, but mobile phone services were out too. I hope this isn't a precursor of regular weather conditions to come.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Had a strange moment on the beach the following morning. It was like a scene from a disaster movie. A stranger, young woman, asked me if I had any news. She had no power, no phone - and no idea what was happening. I'd already gone to the darkened supermarket for a newspaper, so could pass on some info to her.
A friend drove up to the next town 35 km away to charge her phone and said they were much worse off than we were - destruction everywhere.
I'm starting to wonder if this has some connection to the solar cycle and the solar maximum due shortly. 
The trees are standing. Yikes.
Glad you're okay. 
They look like young, spindly eucalypts - flexible. Many big, old trees didn't make it.