Storms cause havoc across Queensland

BRISBANE - Two people are dead, four seriously injured and three recovering from lightning strikes after wild storms lashed southern Queensland again overnight.

The storm was the 17th in seven weeks.

The region is today mopping up after heavy rain, gale-force winds and lightning caused widespread blackouts, property damage and weather-related road accidents.

A 41-year-old woman was killed instantly when a large tree branch broke off and crashed through her windscreen as she was driving through Clifton, on the Darling Downs about 6pm NZT yesterday.

A four-year-old boy in the back seat was uninjured.

A 30-year-old man died when his motorcycle collided with a car at Slacks Creek, south of Brisbane, about 8pm NZT.

The man died at the scene while the driver of the car was rushed to Logan Hospital in a serious condition.

A woman, 31, and her two children, nine and five, were taken to hospital after their car veered off the road and hit a power pole in Sheldon in Brisbane's east.

All are in a serious condition.

Lightning struck an Energex worker at Surfers Paradise and an elderly woman at Kingscliff, and caused a 15 car pile-up on the Pacific Motorway.

A 42-year-old Queensland man is critically ill in hospital after being struck by lightning while holidaying in northern NSW.

He had climbed to the roof of a Kingscliff resort building, on Marine Parade, to see if an electrical storm had passed about 8.50pm NZT, police said.

He was taken to Tweed Heads Hospital in a critical condition with severe burns.

Energex spokesman Graham Metcalf said most of more than 90,000 homes affected by the weather were in the Logan, Ipswich and southern Brisbane areas.

About 1,000 were still without power.

"It's the 17th significant storm event in south-east Queensland in the past seven weeks," he said today.

"The whole of last summer we only had 17. This was the most significant."

More than 300 wires came down and 3,000 lightning strikes were recorded in two hours from 7pm NZT, he said.

Counter Disaster and Rescue Services south-east regional director Peter McNamee said crews responded to more than 150 calls for help.

"The majority of that was located around the Logan city area, into southern Brisbane across to the Ipswich boundary," he told ABC Radio.

"So it's been a particularly busy night for my crews last night."

Damage included fallen trees and damaged roofs.

"Some people have actually lost significant parts of their roofs. In some particular cases we've also had trees that have come down on to roofs," Mr McNamee said.

The storms also sparked a high-rise drama in Brisbane's CBD.

Window washers Peter Kellett and Sean Aims spent three hours hanging outside the Riparian Plaza's 27th storey after the platform they were working on jammed.

Rescue crews had to wait until 90 kph winds passed before cutting a panel of glass from the building to pluck them to safety.

- AAP