At lunchtime, 86,500 customers were still without power.
Danny Donald, from Energex, said crews restored power to 70,000 properties overnight, but warned it could be at least one or two days until some of the worst-affected areas, particularly in the Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast regions, had power restored.
Hail in Ferny Hills on Monday.
“We’ve got another 300 crew out there today, plus we’ve got additional crews coming in from Toowoomba and the Wide Bay, Hervey Bay region, so we are throwing everything at it,” he told 4BC radio.
“The worst-affected area, of course, is anywhere northside of Brisbane up to the Sunshine Coast.”
But Donald warned power restoration would be more of a marathon than a sprint.
“They’re going absolute clappers to get this sorted ASAP, but it’s going to be a day or two yet,” he said.
Fallen branches at Riverside Drive in West End.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
A Moreton Bay Regional Council spokesman said damage to the city’s power infrastructure was significantly worse than other areas of south-east Queensland, with more than 400 SES jobs in the area, 21 council roads closed and seven main roads closed.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Jonathan How said hail up to 11 to 12 centimetres in diameter was recorded at Manly, Ferny Hills and Alexandra Hills on Monday, with pockets of heavy rainfall across the region.
And he warned more storms were expected on Tuesday.
Moreton Island had the highest rainfall of 80mm, most of which fell within 30 minutes, with about 40mm to 60mm near the Brisbane Airport, and there were reports of flash flooding.
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How warned a thunderstorm was likely on Tuesday afternoon or night, possibly severe with damaging winds, large hail and heavy rain, which might lead to flash flooding.
“And this could affect places that were impacted quite heavily last night,” he said.
Brisbane was expected to reach a high of 35 degrees on Tuesday.
Queensland Association of State School Principals president Pat Murphy said several schools went into lockdown as the severe storms hit right on end of school-bell time on Monday.
“We had parents out the front of schools … our prime concern is the safety of kids,” he said.
Murphy acknowledged the teachers and teacher aides who stayed with students before they could be picked up, which was for “well over an hour” at some schools.
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