{"id":308753,"date":"2025-11-26T00:04:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308753\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T00:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:04:20","slug":"smashed-solar-panels-no-power-schools-shut-as-south-east-queensland-storm-clean-up-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308753\/","title":{"rendered":"Smashed solar panels, no power, schools shut as south-east Queensland storm clean-up continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authorities are scrambling to restore vital services to south-east Queensland after severe thunderstorms downed powerlines and wiped out mobile phone service.<\/p>\n

Severe thunderstorms rolled through the state’s south-east on Monday and Tuesday night, bringing heavy winds, rain, and hailstones as large as 14 centimetres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Solar<\/p>\n

A run of severe storms with giant hail have caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to solar panels. (ABC News: Will Murray)<\/p>\n

More than 160,000 customers across south-east Queensland lost power as a result of the storm, frustrating efforts to restore mobile phone service and re-open state schools with seven remaining closed today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State Emergency Service volunteers have responded to about 530 calls for assistance since Tuesday afternoon, with about 1,800 jobs still outstanding.<\/p>\n

Acting chief officer Scott Revell said the damage was substantial, describing the storm as similar to the conditions experienced during ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.<\/p>\n

Loading…”We’re taking this very seriously and we’re bringing in crews from other regions,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re gathering all the directors again this morning to get more volunteers so we can clear through these jobs.”<\/p>\n

Storms to continue across Queensland<\/a><\/p>\n

The south-east corner is once again bracing for severe storms for the third day in a row.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the education department said the school closures were largely due to power and IT issues, and downed powerlines, rather than direct damage.<\/p>\n

“Before any school can re-open, an assessment must be conducted to ensure the site is safe, and the department’s school closure website will be updated in real-time to reflect this,” they said.<\/p>\n

Authorities ‘almost rebuilding’ parts of power network<\/p>\n

Continuing power outages have also caused havoc for mobile phone towers, with some residents in hard-hit Bribie Island, north of Brisbane, and Coolum on the Sunshine Coast cut off from the network.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Telstra regional general manager May Boisen said the telco was “making good progress” in bringing services back online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our backup power systems kept many services online for as long as possible, and we’ve been progressively restoring a number of our sites throughout last night and today,” Ms Boisen said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

She said Telstra had restored 90 mobile sites by Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Energex said about 38,000 households remained without power, with crews working around the clock.<\/p>\n

“Bribie [Island] is still a mess,” spokesperson Danny Donald said.<\/p>\n

“In fact, it’s not just a case of repairing some of the network on Bribie, we’re almost rebuilding it.<\/p>\n

“Before we can even start repairing it, we’re working with council and emergency services to actually remove a lot of the debris that’s over roads.”<\/p>\n

\"Leaning<\/p>\n

Energex is expecting to restore power to the majority of customers by Wednesday evening. (ABC News: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

He said Energex expected to get “the majority” of customers back online by Wednesday evening, but more isolated areas could have a longer wait.<\/p>\n

With more storms on the way, Mr Donald said they were keeping their “fingers crossed” more damage would be minimal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The last thing our crews want to be going is doing repairs on stuff they only repaired a few hours ago,” he said.<\/p>\n

Hail the size of cricket balls ‘hammering down’<\/p>\n

Brad Jackson said the noise of the hail on his tin roof in the Brisbane suburb of Keperra was “like we’re under attack”.<\/p>\n

“It started off with smaller hailstones, maybe marble size, that you’d get used to, and then progressed into cricket balls,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[The] dog was a bit scared, wife and kids were a bit scared, but I found it a bit exciting.”\"A<\/p>\n

Brad Jackson’s rooftop solar panels were damaged by hail at his Keperra home. (ABC News: Jessica van Vonderen)<\/p>\n

Mr Jackson said his family’s solar power went offline due to the damage to the panels.<\/p>\n

“They were hitting pretty hard and some of the concrete’s even got some scarring, when hail can scar concrete, you know it’s travelling at a fair rate,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Monday’s storm brought giant hailstones up to 11 centimetres, damaging solar panels in Brisbane. (ABC News: Jessica van Vonderen)<\/p>\n

In Cornubia, south of Brisbane, Mary Foster’s solar panels, roof tiles, and her son’s car were damaged during the hailstorms.<\/p>\n

With the weather bureau predicting more severe storms this week, Ms Foster is preparing for more action.<\/p>\n

“If there are more hailstones, there are more hailstones. Just keep out of their way.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mary Foster’s solar panels and roof tiles were damaged, along with her son’s car. (ABC News: Will Murray)<\/p>\n

She said she would like to see more comprehensive warnings going out prior to dangerous weather events.<\/p>\n

“These hailstones were the size of cricket balls, and they were hammering down into the grass, and they were digging two-inch holes in the grass,” she said.<\/p>\n

Highest storm activity in over a decade<\/p>\n

This year’s storm activity in Queensland has been the highest since 2013, and some residents are dealing with damage from multiple weather events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are hailstorms getting more frequent in south-east Queensland?<\/a><\/p>\n

The region has been hit by another round of storms which brought large and even giant hailstones. Is this the new normal?<\/p>\n

It has led to what the Insurance Council of Australia has labelled an insurance “catastrophe”, with more than 16,000 claims made by Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consecutive hailstorms at Cornubia have damaged the new roof on Victoria Sadleir’s home, which was replaced recently following ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.<\/p>\n

“In the midst of changing my roof over and unfortunately, two hailstorms,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Because it’s a build site the insurance says that if water comes in, I’m not covered for that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Victoria Sadleir’s roof was damaged again after being fixed following Cyclone Alfred. (ABC News: Will Murray)<\/p>\n

She said roofers were working to make sure it was “sealed tight”.<\/p>\n

“It happened again. How can two hailstorms happen back-to-back?”<\/p>\n

Senior meteorologist Shane Kennedy said severe thunderstorms were expected today and Thursday, with the potential to extend up to north Queensland.<\/p>\n

\"Large,<\/p>\n

The Brisbane surburb of Chermside before the storm hit at about 3pm on Monday afternoon. (Supplied: MBK Aerials)<\/p>\n

Mr Kennedy said the “unsettled” conditions were likely to continue through the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

“On Sunday, we finally start to see some drier and cooler air push into the state, and that should really help to flush out much of the state early next week,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Looking at Monday and Tuesday next week, we should finally get a break for most of the state.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities are scrambling to restore vital services to south-east Queensland after severe thunderstorms downed powerlines and wiped out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2572,4360,150594,44,38664,61837,159853,8525,8419],"class_list":["post-308753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-energy","tag-extreme-weather","tag-giant-hail","tag-news","tag-power-outages","tag-queensland-weather","tag-school-closures","tag-solar-panels","tag-telstra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}