The Tanah Merah home of Cole and Elicia Abbott, where a tree fell on their house during Sunday night's storm. Picture: Tim Marsden Source: The Courier-Mail
A BABY narrowly avoided injury when a tree fell on her bedroom in Brisbane's south during last night's ferocious storm.
The Abbott family of Tanah Merah, in Logan, estimate the repair bill to exceed $60,000 after a tree collapsed onto their roof, causing interior damage.
The roof of the main bedroom, laundry and baby's bedroom caved in, with branches extending inside the home.
Cole Abbott, 25, said his seven-month-old daughter Penelope had been sleeping in her room just minutes before the tree crashed through the house, coming to rest above the child's crib.
"The scariest thing was the fact of how close it was to getting her it was literally only five, 10 minutes after we moved her," he said.
"We're just glad that she was safe, I don't know what would happen if she'd been in there. I don't know what I'd be doing right now."
Mr Abbott's wife Elicia, 25, was also home at the time.
"The storm just picked up all of a sudden out of nowhere and the noise woke Penelope up, if she slept a little bit longer she would have been in there," Mrs Abbott said.
"It's lucky we weren't on our bed or we would have been decapitated."
Mr Abbott was in the shower when the tree fell.
A baby's damaged bedroom after a tree fell on her family's home at Tanah Merah.
"It was a loud, loud bang but I didn't think it had hit the house," he said.
The tree fell around 5.30pm, but despite immediately calling the SES the family have yet to receive any help, with rain pouring through the holes in the roof overnight.
The tree also came to rest on Mrs Abbott's father's car, which was parked in the driveway, smashing the rear lights.
The family are familiar with wild weather after living through two cyclones in Townsville but said this was the worst storm damage they had suffered.
"At the end of the day they're just objects," Mr Abbott said.
At 7am, more than 13,000 houses remained without power as Energex crews continued emergency repairs across the southeast.
Energex spokesman Nathan Hatch said crews were working hard to repair damage and hope to have power restored to most properties this morning.
He warned that some of the 10,000 properties in the hardest-hit parts of Logan and Beaudesert may still be without power later today.
Mr Hatch said 16,000 lightning strikes were recorded across south east Queensland since 3.30pm yesterday.
Brian Willey took this photo looking east from Oakey, on the Darling Downs, about 9pm. PIC: Brian Willey.
In a busy night for the SES, crews responded to about 90 calls for assistance. Two thirds of those calls came from the Logan area with residents reporting downed trees and damaged or leaking roofs.
"It's been quite a significant storm for us," Mr Hatch said.
Mr Hatch said 58,000 power outages were recorded. An average summer storm typically results in 25,000 - 30,000 outages.
According to senior forecaster Ben Annells, there could be more to come.
"Today is still fairly unstable throughout southeast Queensland," he said.
"It doesn't appear as unstable as yesterday but we should expect further showers and gusty thunderstorms.
"Damaging winds are certainly the main concern."
Mr Annells said any storm was likely to come through later this afternoon or tonight and head in a south to north direction.
While the storm activity should ease, Mr Annells said showers are likely to hang around for most of the week.
A car yard at Greenslopes, in Brisbane's inner south, was damaged by a storm last night.
"We will see isolated showers around tomorrow with an increase tomorrow night," he said.
Wednesday and Thursday are likely to be the wettest days of the week with further storm activity returning for the weekend.
Overnight, it was reported the southeast could be in the firing line again today after a storm yesterday afternoon left one man in a critical condition and damaged homes.
The injured man, believed to be in his 40s, remained in a critical condition last night after he was hit by a tree branch during the Twilight Run at St Lucia.
Emergency crews were called to Sir Fred Schonell Drive at 6.19pm where ambulance officers found the man unconscious at the scene after being hit by a large tree branch.
The man suffered serious head injuries and was rushed to the Princess Alexandra Hospital where he remained in a critical condition last night.
Hannah Vermeulen was at a water station behind St Leo's College on Sir William MacGregor Dve when the branch hit the man in front her.
"It took half an hour for the ambulance to get there. A doctor who was running stopped and helped, and another runner who had first aid experience helped too," the 24-year-old from Fortitude Valley said.
Runner Dave Withnall, 37, from Runcorn said the storm hit about an hour into the race.
A stormfront, as pictured from Admiralty Towers, moves through Brisbane's CBD yesterday afternoon. PIC: Ruth Bonnett
"I was crossing the Green Bridge and people were supporting themselves with the guard rails to keep themselves upright in the wind," he said.
"There was wind and rain and a bit of hail."
Other shocked competitors were gathered at the University of Queensland running track.
In another incident a 53-year-old woman was taken to hospital after the roof of her home collapsed under the weight of a tree.
Emergency crews were called to the house on Torres St at Loganholme about 6pm to find part of the roof had collapsed.
The woman was not trapped, but suffered cuts to her head.
More than 55,000 homes and businesses in Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast lost power as 220 power lines were torn down.
The storm brought torrential rain and wind gusts reaching nearly 100km/h.
The occupants of a car were reported trapped under live wires at Kuraby but were rescued unharmed.
A stormfront moves through Brisbane's CBD yesterday afternoon.
Five houses in Loganlea, Kingston, Beenleigh and Shailer Park had trees fall on them, emergency services said.
The first of a series of severe storm cells crossed southeast Queensland about 3.30pm, bringing thousands of lightning strikes and heavy rain.
The weather bureau said 45mm was recorded in 30 minutes at Carole Park and 40mm at Brassall in Ipswich.
Jimboomba, Greenbank and Logan Village were among the hardest-hit suburbs in Logan City, where more than 22,000 properties had power cuts.
Forecaster Ben Annells said: "It has been hot, but it was the surface trough - the excess of low pressure - that triggered the severe thunderstorm we saw (yesterday)," Mr Annells said.
Earlier, forecaster Brett Harrison said there remained a heightened risk of more storms for Brisbane today.
Reporting by Naomi Lim, Brian Williams
A reader taken from Highfields, near Toowoomba, yesterday afternoon.
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