Tens of thousands of homes remain without power across south-east Queensland after severe storms swept through the region on Wednesday, with further cells forecast today.
About 50,000 properties are still without electricity, with most of the outages affecting residents in Logan, south of Brisbane.
Energex spokeswoman Rebecca Winter said many damaged powerlines and poles needed to be replaced.
“This is not going to be a quick fix — the damage is severe,” she said.
“Fresh reinforcements are coming from further afield to back up the crews who have been on the job since yesterday afternoon.”
A tree fell on a car on Chambers Flat Road at Munruben. (Supplied: Harvey’s Towing)
More than 120,000 lightning strikes were recorded yesterday, Energex said, while the SES received more than 300 calls for help in the wake of the storms.
Swiftwater rescue crews were called to help a driver whose car got stuck in floodwaters at Gumdale, in Brisbane’s east.
The vehicle was stranded just after 6:30pm last night.
The driver was walked to safety a short time later and was not hurt.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jonathan How said much of south-east Queensland could be in the firing line for more storms today.
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“The Gold Coast all the way up towards Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg could all see severe thunderstorms again today,” Mr How said.
“Again, [there is a] risk of flash flooding, large hail and damaging winds, so reminding people across that part of the east coast to keep across those forecasts and warnings through the day.”
‘Very dangerous’ storms hit Qld
At least 20 schools remain closed today in the Logan City Council region.
On its website, the Education Department said the schools would reopen “when safe for staff and students to attend”.
Logan Mayor Jon Raven said Category 1 cyclone speed winds hit the area yesterday, with over 400 power lines downed across the city.
“We had people whose roofs were ripped off their homes in Regents Park and Marsden,” he said.
“Our parks team has gone into disaster mode, there’s teams out there now triaging.
“Our priority is to get trees off roads, off footpaths and getting people clear access to their homes.”
Mobile outages are continuing to affect several Logan suburbs, including Marsden, Crestmead and Waterford West.
A Telstra spokesperson said the company was working with authorities to restore services as quickly as possible.