South East Queensland smashed by storms as thousands left without power
Severe thunderstorms have battered the Darling Downs with huge winds reported as the latest system barrels toward the southeast.
South East Queensland was once again staring down the barrel of severe storms overnight, after high winds wrought havoc on the southern Darling Downs and border regions.
In an alert issued about 10.30pm, the Bureau of Meteorology said severe thunderstorms were likely to produce damaging winds in the next several hours.
Locations that may be affected included Brisbane, Ipswich, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Logan, City of Moreton Bay and Dalby.
They were forecast to affect Ipswich, the area south of Esk and the area southwest of Esk by 10.55pm and Brisbane CBD, Esk and Crows Nest by 11.25pm.
The bureau said a 107km/h wind gust had been recorded at Goondiwindi Airport on the NSW border just before 6.30pm.
Several homes in Warwick have had their roof blown off and powerlines are down across the region, with emergency crews racing to multiple callouts between 8.30pm and 9.40pm.
Residents of Warwick township posted about damage the likes of which they had never seen, one sharing a photo of an uprooted tree.
It came as battered Bribie Island residents pleaded with the state government for financial help as thousands remain without power after Monday’s devastating storm.
But the calls to activate financial assistance have so far fallen on deaf ears, with Disaster Recovery Minister Ann Leahy only saying work was under way to determine if cash should be unlocked.
“Pockets of South East Queensland have been hit hard by the recent storms and my sympathies go out to those who have had their homes and businesses affected,” she said.
“Queenslanders know when it comes to disaster recovery we are with them for the long haul, and our disaster agencies are working closely with councils to ensure local communities have the support they need.”
It is understood the Queensland Reconstruction Authority and councils are collecting data about the extent of the storm damage before they trigger a disaster declaration.
About 28,000 South East Queensland homes and businesses were still without power on Wednesday afternoon, but most of those were due to be back up by late in the night unless more storms rolled in.
That was down from 162,000 on Monday night.
Some homes would take until today or Friday to restore because of major damage, mostly on Bribie Island and parts of the Sunshine Coast.
About 7500 homes on Bribie and Ningi, on the mainland, still had no power. Bribie also had limited mobile coverage.
About 3000 more were affected in the Beachmere-Caboolture-Burpengary area. Sunshine Coast suburbs still without power included parts of Marcoola, Boreen Point, Eumundi, Kin Kin and Tinbeerwah.
A Bribie Island fish and chips restaurant owner has been forced to throw away “everything” after losing power for more than 48 hours.
Jonathon Taylor, 32, owns The Crabpot Fish and Chips in the battered suburb of Woorim.
Mr Taylor lost thousands of dollars in stock and at least three days of trading after power was cut to the business at 4pm Monday, and was only brought back in by a generator at 5pm Wednesday.
“Obviously we would’ve liked it to be back on sooner,” Mr Taylor said.
“It’s a shame, but we’re all just trying to get on with it.”
Mr Taylor said they’re still in the dark as to when power will be properly restored, instead of generated.
“Powerlines are still down, so looks like it might not be on until Friday,” Mr Taylor said.
“It’s hard, but the show must go on.”
Bartender Laura Topfer, 43, estimated her Bribie Island pub lost $40,000 during the extended outage, with the venue still forced to run at minimum capacity.
The Blue Pacific Hotel in Woorim was without power for more than 24 hours before a generator returned power on Wednesday morning.
“We’re operating, but minimally. We can’t use our eftpos machines, we can’t use TAB or Keno because the internet’s still not up and running,” Ms Topfer said.
“We had to throw out basically everything from the kitchen and all of our milk supply for the coffee machine - thousands of dollars worth of stock.
“I tipped out 14 litres of milk this afternoon.”
Ms Topfer said staff also missed out on crucial wages from the closures and their much-anticipated Rockfest event was indefinitely postponed.
“It’s upsetting, but mostly everyone is happy they’re alive, even people who have lived here 35 years said it was the worst storm they’ve ever experienced,” Ms Topfer said.
“We’re just really hoping power can be restored soon. It’s always a lot slower here than on the mainland, but that’s just part of living here.”
Optus said it had restored 149 mobile sites in the southeast with 30 still out due to power cuts.
Customers could use their phones at Bribie Island’s shopping centre where Optus had installed a generator and also a charging truck where people could recharge their phones.
Telstra said 90 per cent of its sites were back online in the region, while slow connections were restored to most of Bribie Island allowing text messages and calls.
So far 140 mobile sites were restored, with 14 still disrupted as well as 1709 landline phones, excluding NBN.
Monday’s supercell storm caused widespread damage across South East Queensland, and has officially been declared an “insurance catastrophe”.
Insurers have now received more than 27,800 claims for the southeast storms this week, with more expected to be lodged in coming days as power was restored.
Insurance Council of Australia CEO Andrew Hall said on Wednesday: “We encourage anyone who’s been impacted by recent storms to lodge a claim with their insurer, even if they don’t know the full extent of the damage.”
He also warned of “disaster chasers’’ offering quick-fix clean-ups, repairs and inspections, often demanding up-front cash payments.
Originally published as South East Queensland smashed by storms as thousands left without power
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