Severe Storms Bring Chaos to Brisbane, Leaving Thousands Without Power
A powerful storm system swept through Queensland on Monday, causing widespread destruction and leaving nearly 100,000 households without power. The eye of the storm brought with it gusty winds of up to 110km/h and hail as large as 12cm in diameter, causing significant damage to trees, roofs, and buildings.
The full extent of the damage is only now coming into view, with Queensland SES officials reporting over 2,200 calls in the hours leading up to 2.30am on Tuesday. The majority of these calls were related to structural issues, such as damaged roofs and windows, particularly in the Brisbane area and surrounding suburbs.
Bribie Island was one of the worst-affected areas, with residents describing scenes of absolute devastation. "It's just an absolute mess," said Heather, a resident of Bribie Island. The island's infrastructure is still reeling from the storm, with over 48,000 customers without power at the time.
Energex, the energy supplier for south-east Queensland, reported nearly 100,000 outages stretching from the Gold Coast to Gympie. While crews worked around the clock to restore power, officials warned that it could take up to two days for all affected areas to be back online.
The storm's impact was exacerbated by strong winds, which brought down trees and roofed homes. "Winds are the biggest contributor to outages during storms," said a media spokesperson for Energex. The company recorded over 880,000 lightning strikes in just a few hours, making it one of the most active storm systems on record.
The wild weather is expected to continue throughout Tuesday, with thunderstorms forecast across eastern Australia and heavy rainfall, hail, and flash flooding possible in some areas. Temperatures are also set to soar, reaching up to 10C above average in parts of the east coast, leading to warm nights that could last all the way through the weekend.
As Queenslanders deal with the aftermath of Monday's storms, officials are urging residents to stay safe and prepared for further disruptions. With thousands still without power, it's clear that this is an event that will be felt for days to come.
A powerful storm system swept through Queensland on Monday, causing widespread destruction and leaving nearly 100,000 households without power. The eye of the storm brought with it gusty winds of up to 110km/h and hail as large as 12cm in diameter, causing significant damage to trees, roofs, and buildings.
The full extent of the damage is only now coming into view, with Queensland SES officials reporting over 2,200 calls in the hours leading up to 2.30am on Tuesday. The majority of these calls were related to structural issues, such as damaged roofs and windows, particularly in the Brisbane area and surrounding suburbs.
Bribie Island was one of the worst-affected areas, with residents describing scenes of absolute devastation. "It's just an absolute mess," said Heather, a resident of Bribie Island. The island's infrastructure is still reeling from the storm, with over 48,000 customers without power at the time.
Energex, the energy supplier for south-east Queensland, reported nearly 100,000 outages stretching from the Gold Coast to Gympie. While crews worked around the clock to restore power, officials warned that it could take up to two days for all affected areas to be back online.
The storm's impact was exacerbated by strong winds, which brought down trees and roofed homes. "Winds are the biggest contributor to outages during storms," said a media spokesperson for Energex. The company recorded over 880,000 lightning strikes in just a few hours, making it one of the most active storm systems on record.
The wild weather is expected to continue throughout Tuesday, with thunderstorms forecast across eastern Australia and heavy rainfall, hail, and flash flooding possible in some areas. Temperatures are also set to soar, reaching up to 10C above average in parts of the east coast, leading to warm nights that could last all the way through the weekend.
As Queenslanders deal with the aftermath of Monday's storms, officials are urging residents to stay safe and prepared for further disruptions. With thousands still without power, it's clear that this is an event that will be felt for days to come.
100k+ households left without power? That's like half the city or something 
. I feel bad for all those people who are struggling to cope, especially with the infrastructure still down on Bribie Island 
. And it's not just the power outages, the whole area looks like a war zone... trees down everywhere, roofs ripped off, that's some scary stuff 
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. I hope Energex can get everything sorted out as soon as possible. And the news reports keep saying it could take up to two days for all areas to be back online? That's like a whole weekend lost... not fun 
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. Still, this storm was some nasty weather, and I'm sure Queenslanders will be talking about it for ages 
.
! I can only imagine how chaotic it must've been with 100k households left without power 
. It's insane that Energex had to deal with over 880k lightning strikes - that's just crazy 
. Hopefully, the crews get everything sorted out soon so people can get back to their daily lives 
. I feel bad for Bribie Island, though - it sounds like they got absolutely hammered by the storm 
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it's like a real-life video game with all this destruction. 
. it's not just the power outage thats a problem tho, its the fact that our infrastructure is so fragile and can't even handle a simple storm. we need better emergency preparedness and infrastructure in place 
. it's time for us to rethink how we're building our homes and cities, and make sure they can withstand the weather conditions 
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and I can only imagine how scary it must've been living on Bribie Island, it sounds like total chaos 
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these storm systems r getting more intense by the day... gotta feel fer the ppl in brisbane & surrounding suburbs who got hit hard. gotta give it to the SES crew for respondin fast, tho 
. And now with thunderstorms forecasted for Tuesday, it's gonna be a long recovery process 
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. This is what I call a "storm of opportunity" – an opportunity to rethink our priorities and make some real changes