'Armageddon' supercell smashes Queensland leaving thousands without power amid commuter chaos
A supercell hailstorm that smashed into Southeast Queensland, producing giant hail and cyclonic winds, has been declared an insurance catastrophe.
A supercell hailstorm that left thousands of homes without power and caused widespread damage across Southeast Queensland has officially been declared an “insurance catastrophe”.
The Insurance Council of Australia made the declaration this afternoon as claims began to mount, with more than 16,000 lodged across 140 postcodes.
The mammoth storm cell swept up from the NSW border, leaving a wake of destruction as it moved north towards the central Queensland coastline throughout Monday afternoon and evening.
Wind gusts up to 135km/h and hail 12cm in size were recorded during the storm.
More than 160,000 properties lost power at the height of the chaos and heavy rail delays plagued the network today, with more potentially severe storms forecast.
Energex crews worked through the night but 96,000 properties were still in the dark at 8.30am on Tuesday, with that number dropping to 55,000 by 7pm.
IN PICTURES: VIOLENT STORM PUMMELS SOUTHEAST
Insurance Council of Australia deputy CEO Kylie Macfarlane said the number of claims were expected to rise throughout the week.
“We strongly encourage all those impacted by these severe storms to ensure they do not undertake any activity themselves that may put their safety at risk,” Ms Macfarlane said.
“Our advice to impacted policyholders is to lodge a claim as soon as you can, even if you don’t yet know the full extent of the damage.
“Lodging a claim via insurers’ online portals is generally a quicker and easier way to get the claims process started.”
Ms Macfarlane added that the 2025/2026 storm season had arrived earlier than last year’s intense storms.
“We’ve definitely had a strong start to the year this year, from a storm season perspective, perhaps back in 2024 when we had the Christmas Day storms. We were seeing a similar type of activity,” Ms Macfarlane said.
“This hopefully isn’t a precursor to what’s to come over Christmas, but we are watching the weather carefully.”
She also warned residents in the southeast about disaster chasers who might offer to help with insurance.
Bribie Island Caravan Park resident Filomena Paola said she was incredibly frightened during the storm.
“It was horrendous, I have never been so scared in my life. What I saw and what I witnessed was just terrible. I had a tree at the back of my backyard, it’s come straight down, broken the fence, on top of my roof. I lost some sheeting. I had water coming through my skylight — it was dreadful.”
Locals took to social media to share images of the carnage, including a jagged 12cm hailstone photographed at Gumdale.
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said 11 state schools were forced to close due to storm damage, with two private schools also closed.
“This damage is similar to the types of things that we know happens in these storm events, just as we had with ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred – trees down, access issues, footpaths and, of course, damages to roofs and gutters,” Mr Langbroek said.
He also said 47 schools across the southeast were experiencing significant IT issues, but remained open.
Crews restored power to 70,000 homes overnight after a mammoth response involving 200 Energex staff but an Energex spokesman warned some pockets of the southeast could remain off the grid until Wednesday.
“The areas with the most extensive damage are Ipswich/Lockyer region, Brisbane North/Moreton Bay Council region and Sunshine Coast region,” the spokesman said.
At least 300 additional workers will be deployed on Tuesday from as far as Wide Bay and Toowoomba to help restore power across the network in the Southeast.
Danny Donald from Energex said residents in parts of Moreton Bay, stretching from Brisbane’s northern suburbs through to the Sunshine Coast, may remain in the dark until Wednesday because of extensive damage to the network and access issues in several areas, including hinterland properties and hard-to-reach locations.
State Emergency Services were bombarded with 2200 calls for help between 12pm Monday and 2.30am Tuesday.
Brisbane recorded the highest number of calls (653), followed by Logan (518), Moreton Bay (462), Redland City (314) and the Sunshine Coast (116).
About 75 per cent of calls related to structural damage, including smashed windows, skylights and roofs requiring tarping, while 12 per cent were for flooding.
“Energex will have two helicopters flying quite low across the most severely damaged areas around Ipswich and Brisbane North/Sunshine Coast from first light Tuesday morning to further identify and assess damage,” an Energex spokesman said.
“As of 8.30pm, there were more than 900 powerlines down, and Energex counted more than 880,000 lightning strikes during the storms.
“Energex asks for residents to take extreme care when cleaning up storm debris, particularly fallen trees and vegetation, as fallen powerlines may be hidden underneath debris and could well be live.”
A home south of Brisbane lost its roof, with residents requiring help, and parents with children at Coombabah State School were contacted about 2pm to say the campus was being put in lockdown, with nine centimetre hail recorded in the area.
Biggera Waters State School parents posted to a Facebook community forum with claims the school had been hit by lightning as students were leaving for the day.
“Yeah it was pretty hectic,” one parent wrote.
“I was walking out with my son as it hit.”
Another claimed the strike hit the school hall – setting off alarms.
No reports had been made to emergency services.
Tuesday morning train services have been thrown into disarray with delays of up to 60 minutes on the Sunshine Coast and Caboolture lines during peak hour. The Springfield line had delays of up to 30 minutes, with 15 minute delays for inbound services from Kippa-Ring, while Sunshine Coast line services from Caboolture to Gympie North were suspended.
By 11am, most services were back to normal, with 15-minute delays on the Caboolture line.
On Monday, just before 3pm crews responded to calls a roof had been blown off a home on Station Rd at Loganlea.
The incident was witnessed by neighbour Rhylissa Podlich, 16.
Ms Podlich raced to call emergency services, who retrieved two elderly residents from the wrecked property just after 3.30pm.
“I was looking out the window because the rain was really bad, and I watched the roof get peeled back and flew into the powerline,” Ms Podlich said
“There was a few sparks and then power to our house was cut off.
“I was freaking out. The storm was really bad, it was flooding around our house and palm trees were shaking.”
Ms Podlich said the elderly pair were unharmed during the evacuation and were now staying with a friend while the roof is damaged.
Authorities had to cut through a neighbouring fence to help retrieve two residents from the severely damaged home.
On Tuesday, there was evidence of significant damage throughout Woorim, where large branched had fallen onto businesses and cars, while the winds ripped off the roof of a house on North St.
A Woorim resident surveying the damage said Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred didn’t compare to this storm.
“Jesus christ now that was a f**king storm,” he said.
“This is way worse than Alfred.”
Woorim resident Alan Bruce was at The Surf Club Bribie Island when the storm hit and felled a large tree onto his car.
“The storm was scary, the wind was incredible,” he said.
“As I walked down after the storm, the damage just got worse and worse and worse and then I saw my car.
“I couldn’t see it at first because of the tree.
“It is going to take a crane to get that off, too.”
Mr Bruce said there is destruction everywhere you look throughout Woorim.
“My mate’s house just down the road here, he lost his roof, it just destroyed the house, it was an old Queenslander,” he said.
“A lot of people are going to feel the pain for a long time.”
There was widespread destruction throughout the Bribie Island Caravan Park, where a large tree uprooted a dwelling and landed on three cars, while the winds ripped off the roof of a caravan that landed in a tree.
Bribie Island Caravan Park manager Nicole Comrie said she was surprised by the damage caused by the storm.
“It came in pretty quick we thought we were going to miss it at first, but yeah we didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was,” she said.
“A large tree fell down and has flipped a car, the resident’s place is totally damaged, lots of trees have snapped, a couple of roofs are off, there’s a roof in a tree, our sign has been flattened at the front and our pool shade is gone.”
Ms Comrie said all the residents and holiday-makers in the park rallied around each other to help in the aftermath of the storm.
“Everyone was a bit shaken last night,” she said.
“When it passed everyone came out and helped each other out and tidy up.
“They’re saying it could be a few days without power, we’ve had to cancel all this week’s bookings.”
In Wynnum West, mother of two Caralyn Ponton, 51, was surprised no-one was hurt when a huge tree crashed into her home just after 3.
“It just missed my son who was in his room, and luckily my daughter wasn’t home,” Ms Ponton said.
“I just hope we can get it fixed before the next storm, because water is already leaking in through the holes in the roof.
“I’ve been worried about this tree since Cyclone Alfred, but turns out it just took a freak storm. It was pretty scary.”
The SES told Ms Ponton they would attempt to remove the tree by this evening.
There are reports of widespread damage on Bribie Island, with some residents questioning whether a tornado formed.
West of Brisbane firefighters were called to the Warrego Highway near Walloon where a falling tree brought down powerlines and started a grass fire.
According to a Queensland Rail spokeswoman, as of 3.20pm on Tuesday, there are 60-minute delays being experienced on the Sunshine Coast rail line, with the rest of the rail network operating to schedule.
Residents in the Gold Coast and Logan areas, where the storms hit first, have posted pictures of huge hail after storms rolled through.
A Cornubia resident said she had never experienced weather like it.
“Honestly, this is insane. Was hit badly last night too – now my windscreen is smashed,” she said.
Clontarf resident Kurtis Garvey was in the middle of a round of golf at Wynnum Golf Club this afternoon when players got caught in a hailstorm.
“Some of the hail stones wouldn’t even fit in the hole,” he said.
A resident at The Gap in Brisbane’s west said the hail sounded like their “roof was being bombed”.
The Bureau said there were 11cm hailstones at Ferny Hills, Alexandra Hills and Manly this afternoon.
Other areas hit by large hail were Birkdale, Tamborine Mountain and Canungra
A 107 km/h wind gust recorded Brisbane Airport at 3:21pm and a 100km/h wind gust at Maroochydore at 3:46pm. A 96km/h gust was recorded at Amberley at 3:05pm.
BOM senior meteorologist Lauren Murphy said there is still a “stormy week ahead”, particularly on the southern and western parts of Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
“Storm risk does continue through to Wednesday and into Thursday as well, with a slight chance of storms on Friday.”
Ms Murphy said the storms were not expected to be worse than Monday, where BOM radars picked up signatures suggesting destructive winds 135km/h or faster.
Suncorp severe weather meteorologist Andrew Bufalino said a trough, combined with a very “moist and unstable atmosphere” caused several ‘supercell thunderstorms’ to spring up together across SEQ and northern NSW.
He expected the storms to move northward in the coming hours, affecting Moreton Bay, Sunshine, and Gympie during the afternoon, potentially shifting towards Bundaberg and Gladstone in the evening.
Meteorologists earlier warned that conditions were building to create severe storms coming right for the state’s southeast, after parts of the region were smashed by giant hail on Sunday evening.
Addressing power outages, Energex spokesman Danny Donald said at least 400 wires were down, with more damage expected.
“Some of those wires could still be live, we’re asking people to not go anywhere near them,” he said.
“If you start a clean-up near your yard, double and triple check there are no wires caught in branches or debris before you start shifting things.”
As a comparison TC Alfred took out roughly 1100 wires, Mr Donald said.
Moreton Bay council was the worst affected region, with 68,000 homes in the dark, followed by Sunshine Coast council with almost 30,000.
Queensland Ambulance Service Brisbane operations centre director, Lisa Dibley, said there was a surge in demand for ambulance response across the southeast, with 4200 triple-zero calls made on Monday – well above the average 3600.
Ms Dibley said QAS were predicting a higher demand over the next few days as the state anticipates higher temperatures and more storms.
Ms Dibley encouraged vulnerable Queenslanders and residents without power to stay cool and keep an eye out for heat stress and heat-related illness symptoms.
“It’s really important that people are aware of themselves and how they are feeling and being really vigilant for any early signs of heat-related illness,” she said.
“So understanding that when you start to feel a bit thirsty, a little bit off, then those are some really early signs of dehydration. Starting to get a little bit more severe, when you notice that there’s some darker urine, people are feeling quite lethargic, and some really key things to look out for if people are an altered conscious state or being unable to speak.
“With the power being out across Queensland, we, where possible, encourage people to stay inside in the heat of the day, if possible, using a fan and airconditioning.
“But if you are one of the people without power at the moment, just be mindful of any other friends or family you might be able to visit that have airconditioning, or potentially think of places in the community, such as the cinemas, the shopping centres, the libraries, and the publicly available spaces that do have airconditioning.”
Ms Dibley said QAS had increased staffing where necessary to anticipate severe thunderstorms and heat-related call-outs this week and during the summer period.
This comes as significant storms battered the state on Sunday, causing hail up to 9cm in diameter that smashed through car windscreens.
The largest hail was recorded at Eagleby, Loganholme and west of Beenleigh, with all three areas copping hail between 8am and 9cm.
RAINFALL TOTALS ON MONDAY
Moreton Island: 79mm
Westaways Creek (Bribie Island): 54mm
Natural Bridge (Gold Coast): 51mm
Schmidts Rd (Logan): 50mm
Samford Valley (Moreton Bay): 47mm
Warner (Moreton Bay): 47mm
Highvale (Moreton Bay): 46mm
Kallangur (Moreton Bay): 46mm
Tamrookum (Scenic Rim): 45mm
HEATWAVE WARNINGS FOR QLD
Meanwhile, a severe heatwave warning has been put in place for much of the southern half of the state, adding to an extreme heatwave warning covering most of the northern half, with temperatures in the low to mid 40s expected between now and Wednesday in some places.
Areas facing severe heatwave temperatures include Peninsula, Gulf Country, Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Capricornia, Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West, North West, Maranoa and Warrego, Darling Downs and Granite Belt, Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast.
Extreme heat is forecast for people in the North Tropical Coast and Tablelands, Herbert and Lower Burdekin, Central Coast and Whitsundays and Channel Country regions.
“Severe to extreme heatwave conditions currently around the state are expected to intensify in the east early this week before easing from the middle of the week,” Tuesday’s updated warning said.
“Conditions in the south and west are expected to ease from the middle of the week and contract to the east.”
Western and central areas of the state are being warned to expect maximum temperatures in the mid to high 40s, with overnight minimums remaining in the mid to high 20s, while closer to the coast the highs are expected to be in the mid-30s to low 40s, with overnight minimums in the mid to low 20s.
Originally published as 'Armageddon' supercell smashes Queensland leaving thousands without power amid commuter chaos
