More than 87,000 Queensland households remain without power a mammoth storm brought 110km/h winds and 12cm hail, with authorities warning a full restoration of the electricity network could take another 24 hours.
A dozen public schools were closed on Tuesday as field crews sought to restore hundreds of powerlines downed in Monday’s storms.
An Energy Queensland spokesperson said that field crews were working around the clock and had restored the network from a peak of 162,000 power outages and 900 downed powerlines over night.
He said more than 300 crews were at work on Tuesday in “horrible, steamy” conditions – while keeping an eye on looming storms.
“We are setting expectations that this has been a very large event, very violent storms, caused a lot of damage to the network, as you’ve seen – trees and houses and everything – so we are saying it will go into late tomorrow, Wednesday, to get this all restored,” he said.
“And we’re a bit worried about the weather forecast tonight as well, which could obviously hamper the restoration work.”
Queensland SES officials responded to about 2,200 calls in the hours to 2.30am, more than two-thirds of which were for structural issues with homes and buildings, including damaged roofs and windows.
A majority of those calls were in the Brisbane area and the surrounding suburbs, with a lot of significant damage being reported on Bribie Island, Queensland police said.
There was at least one report of a car being flipped over due to the winds and many properties had sustained substantial damage, either from hail or fallen trees.
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“Look, from everything we’ve seen, it’s trees down, roofs off,” Heather, a resident of Bribie Island, told Brisbane’s 4BC program this morning. “It’s just an absolute mess.”
Energex, the energy supplier for more than 1.4 million customers in south-east Queensland, was reporting nearly 100,000 outages on Tuesday morning, stretching from the Gold Coast up towards Gympie, north of the Sunshine Coast.
Danny Donald, a media spokesperson for Energex, told 4BC many of those customers in the hardest-hit areas should prepare to be without power for at least a day or two as crews work around the clock to restore power.
“Winds are the biggest contributor to outages during the storms,” Donald said. “Lightning can cause a few issues. But it’s the debris [that’s a problem] and we’re getting the debris coming in from hundreds … metres, from everywhere, flying over the network.”
He said crews were able to restore power to 70,000 customers overnight but warned those in some areas, including the Moreton Bay region, that it could be longer before the lights turn back on.
“In the worst-affected areas you could be out for a day or two yet,” he said. “It’s a good idea to just be prepared for that. It’s probably worthwhile planning ahead now.”
Jonathan How, a forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), said parts of the state – including the Brisbane suburbs of Manly, Ferny Hills and Alexandra Hills – saw hail that was 11 to 12cm in diameter. Brisbane airport recorded wind gusts of 107km/h.
The wild weather was forecast to continue in Queensland on Tuesday.
“We are expecting thunderstorms across large parts of eastern Australia today. The focus will really be across New South Wales and Queensland,” How said in a media briefing.
Those storms could affect the Gold Coast scenic rim region, up towards Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Wide Bay area, bringing with them heavy rainfall, large hail and the possibility of flash flooding.
The state is also in for a hot week, with parts of the east coast expected to see temperatures 10C above average. Those hot days will lead to warm nights, which How said will probably continue all the way to the weekend.
“We’re reminding Queenslanders to stay cool with the heat,” he said.
An Energy Queensland spokesperson said the Moreton Bay regional council area experienced the most damage to the network, where 48,420 customers were still without power Tuesday afternoon, with Bribie Island and neighbouring Ningi “the hardest hit”.
“We recorded 880,000 lightening strikes during the few hours of the storms, which is pretty amazing,” he said.
“So very active, very violent storm systems”.
Twelve state schools were closed on Tuesday due to thunderstorm damage, mostly along the Moreton Bay coastline but including the Sunshine Coast, its hinterland and in the Ipswich area.
The list of affected public schools:
Banksia Beach State School
Beachmere State School
Bribie Island State High School
Bribie Island State School
Churchill State School
Coolum State School
Dakabin State School
Darling Point Special School
Griffin State School
Mount Kilcoy State School
Walloon State School
Woody Point Special School
