South-east Queensland mops up after giant hail smashes homes, leaves thousands without power

South-east Queensland is cleaning up after a series of violent thunderstorms left 95,000 households without power and saw tennis-ball sized hailstones force residents to duck for cover in homes near Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

Energex said it would continue working to restore power to more than 15,000 customers, mostly on the Sunshine Coast, who were still without electricity on Sunday.

“About 15,000 of those were on the Sunshine Coast and Noosa region, they had really big damage areas up there, extensive damage,” Energex spokesperson Justin Coomber said.

He said the Sunshine Coast had more power lines brought down than any other area.

“Trees being blown over and power poles snapped in half … [in] the Sunshine Coast area and Gympie area we…