House slips as thunderstorms, hail batter Brisbane

Severe storms battered Brisbane and parts of south-east Queensland on Sunday, with one house that was under renovation partially collapsing in the wild winds.

On Monday morning, Energex crews were scrambling to restore power to about 24,000 homes, with 265,820 lightning strikes recorded, taking down 369 wires and three substations.

Almost 75,000 homes in the greater Brisbane region lost electricity on Sunday night.

Taking in Toowoomba, South Burnett, Gympie and North Burnett, almost 90,000 homes were knocked out.

An unoccupied house on Dudley Street in the inner-southern suburb of Highgate Hill that was being renovated to raise its height partly slipped off its pilings at the height of the thunderstorms.

Crews worked through the night to restore power, and were refreshed on Monday morning.

Crews from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast were called in to help.

“At the peak of the storm we had almost 75,000 off in Brisbane,” Energex spokesperson Brett Judge said.

“People should expect it’s going to be an extended outage. It could be into the afternoon before we get everything back,” he said.

“There are trees down everywhere, we’re clearing that out first.

“I’d really ask people to be careful if they’re clearing up around their own properties. Look up and see if wires are still attached. Always assume they’re live, even if there’s no power.”

Residents can check the Energex outage finder for up-to-date information.

Senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said earlier on Sunday the weather was forecast to be “potentially dangerous” and she urged the public to keep an eye out for warnings.

Within hours, dark clouds rolled across south-east Queensland. Wind gusts of 96km/h were recorded at Archerfield Airport at 4.34pm, and the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning.

Hail struck the inner city and suburbs across Brisbane and the south-east, with four-centimetre hailstones in Ipswich.

Centenary State High School announced on Monday it would shut for the day – the first day of year 12 exams – as a result of storm damage.

“There is no scope for supervision of any students. We are currently formulating a solution for Year 12 External Exams for this afternoon’s session which will still go ahead,” the school said in a post to Facebook.

Ben Peters of Boss Shine said the walls of the hangar he was working in at Archerfield Airport were shaking as the storm passed.

“[I was] working in an aeroplane hangar and the walls were shaking, planes were starting to move around with the intensity of the wind,” he said.

One northside resident, who shared photos and footage of the storm with Brisbane Times, said they experienced an “insane amount of lightning and thunder” as the storm rolled through.

Harman Madhok, who was staying at Brisbane Skytower in the CBD and captured a timelapse of the storm from his window, described it as “spectacular and scary at the same time”.

Earlier, Bradbury said the forecast storms were not out of the ordinary for this time of year in Brisbane. “But it is still dangerous. It’s still severe,” she said.

Rain would probably continue for much of the week, with Tuesday expected to be the wettest.

The temperature on Monday could hit 37 degrees, about 10 degrees above average.

“It is going to be a very hot day,” Bradbury said. “Some relief is on the way from the heat, but it’s coinciding with some wet weather.”

With Alex Condon

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