Top temperature to drop 16 degrees, as thousands still without power
Sweltering heat has arrived Less than 24 hours have passed since the city was hit by an intense storm.
Further north, in Callide, a lightning strike destroyed part of a large power plant.
As of 5.15pm on Monday (while the temperature was still 32 degrees) 19,042 homes and businesses in the Brisbane City Council area were without power due to the storm.
“The C4 unit at Calide Power Station was activated and decommissioned at approximately 6.30pm yesterday evening following a storm and lightning strike at Powerlink Queensland’s Calvale switchyard,” a CS Energy spokesperson said.
The unit is expected to be back online on Friday.
Energex said power has been restored to more than 90 percent of homes and businesses affected by Sunday’s storms.
“More than 120,000 customers were impacted by the storms and approximately 5,500 customers are still out,” Energex said in a statement on Facebook.
“Crews are coming from all over to repair the worst damage around Indooroopilly, Kenmore and Fig Tree Pocket.
A hazy, orange Brisbane sunset on Monday.Credit: Rosanna Ryan
“It’s wet, which adds another level of complexity, but at least it’s not as hot as yesterday.
“There are still over 40 cables cut, broken poles that need replacing and a lot of vegetation so please be extremely careful if you are cleaning today.”
On Sunday night, Energex said it had received at least 369 cables down and 450 calls for help. More homes lost power Monday due to high winds, and the company said 216 workers were grounded as of the evening.
Smoke haze seen from East Gravatt Mountain on Monday evening. Credit: Marissa Calligeros
“I think we have over 50 crews out there right now working through the night,” Energex spokesman Brett Judge said around 7 p.m.
“They’re dealing with some pretty dense vegetation where the trees are down and the branches are over everything; it’s dark and there are wires everywhere.”
The city will experience a much cooler and possibly wet day on Tuesday before Brisbane warms up again for the rest of the week, with the maximum temperature expected to be 21 degrees (almost 18 degrees lower than Monday’s maximum temperature).
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