Storms cause more chaos for Queensland
Severe thunderstorms have caused more damage for residents trying to rebuild after major flooding in south-east Queensland.
A severe electrical storm with hail has battered a nervous south-east Queensland. (ABC Local: Richard Johnson) [BBC reports 7,000 lightning strikes]
A line of storms from the south-west brought down powerlines, damaged roofs and sent trees crashing into homes and cars from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast.
The cells generated wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour near Ipswich and there was small sized hail in the Lockyer Valley and on Brisbane's northside.
Darra resident Yvonne Rosen says her house was flooded last week and now a tree has crashed onto it.
"I had just shifted my car and I just happened to be looking out my window and I saw this tree come down and it was just furious for about three or four minutes so," she said.
"Not only a tree but a branch hit the back of my house and damaged my kitchen so now I have got water coming through my ceiling as well."
Brisbane resident Chris Strutt says his wife was sleeping in their Darra home when a tree crashed onto it.
"One of our big gum trees in the back yard has just fallen on our back deck and part of our roof," he said.
"Hayley was having a nap and I was at work so you know, you think it's all over and now this happens."
Communities affected by this afternoon's storm include Amberley, Forest Lake, The Gap, Ashgrove and the Sunshine Coast.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Peter Otto says the activity is now moving to the north of Brisbane.
"It looks like things are trying to move north of the Lockyer Valley as well," he said.
"There's a bit of a band of these storms pretty much from Brisbane arching up towards Samford then Esk, locally heavy rainfall and then less intense rainfall, spreading out.
"People in the Lockyer Valley now have probably seen the worst of it for today."
Energex says about 5,000 customers remain without power after the wild storms.
All up, it says about 24,000 customers remain without power in the south-east, including those impacted by last week's flood disaster.
Energex spokeswoman Margaret Lyons says teams are working to restore power as quickly as possible.
"We'll have to divert some crews from the flood repairs to address the damage as a result of the storm," she said.
"We will obviously keep working very hard to get people whose power has been affected as a result of the flood back on as fast as we can."
The Ipswich train line, west of Brisbane, has been cut again after briefly reopening this afternoon.
Translink spokesman Andrew Berkman says the Sherwood to Ipswich service was operating for about 15 minutes before storm damage forced it to close.
"Unfortunately we've had a tree in that storm that's come down on the overhead lines, somewhere between Wacol and Gailes," he said.
"We are organising buses currently to take people from all stations from Sherwood to Ipswich."
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