Army called in after frightening supercell storm

The clean up continues around the South East after the violent supercell storm lashed the city yesterday afternoon.

550 properties have reported roof damage, and so far about 100 of them have been dealt with.

Roads are still littered with shattered glass, fallen powerlines, trees, road signs and other debris.

The army has now been called in to help residents mop up.

The system is being called the most intense storm to hit the CBD since 1985.

Brisbane City Council says it tried to clear roadways first.

Walkways and parks will be the next to be cleaned up.

Insurers have declared the storm a catastrophic weather event.

7News meteorologist Tony Auden says the storm was so intense because of three main ingredients, including high temperatures and humidity, cold air in the upper atmosphere and a trough moving through the area during the afternoon.

This particular system that lashed the South East was a supercell, which are the most serious thunderstorm events Australians experience, and they are dangerous for a number of reasons.

The roof has come off this church at West End. Source: 7News cameraman Alistair MacDonald

They last for a relatively long time and can maintain intense power for many hours.

Yesterday's storm produced wind gusts of 140km/h, which is equivalent to a Category 2 cyclone.

The State Emergency Service has had more than 1608 requests for assistance to date.

Many of those have been concentrated in the Moorooka and Annerley areas.

Apartment on Archer Street at Toowong which is now missing its roof. Source: 7News Journalist Max Futcher

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services says it's expected to take a number of days for SES to fulfil these requests and volunteers will be mostly attending to the Eastern suburbs today.

Rural firefighters are also working to clean up debris and conduct chainsaw operations throughout the day.

194 Firefighters are continuing to assess and repair damage across Brisbane, and have responded to around 500 storm-related incidents so far.

At 3.15pm(AEST) there were still more than 24,000 people without power in the Brisbane area.

20,000 are expected to be without power again tonight.

The Brisbane City Council says free green waste disposal will be available to all residents from today and will continue over the weekend.

Council will also be conducting kerbside clean-up of storm damaged items, debris and waste across close to 50 impacted suburbs.

The supercell produced very large hail, about 8cm in diameter, which did a vast amount of damage to homes, businesses and vehicles.

The hailstones were the result of the supercell's rotating updraught, Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Richard Wardle says.

"That makes that rising motion really robust and allows the water vapour in the atmosphere to condense out and form ice crystals," he said.

"Then they coalesce and the updraught and gravity compete with one another, the hail really is able to grow in strength."

One of the planes that flipped at Archerfield Airport. Source 7News Brisbane

Seven planes flipped at Archerfield Airport in the dangerous storm.

The damage bill there is expected to run into the millions.

Damage at a building at Herston. Source: 7News Journalist Max Futcher

Premier Campbell Newman said the event had even eclipsed the 2008 storm at The Gap, which left hundreds of homes damaged and a repair bill of $86 million.

Mr Wardle said Thursday's hailstorm was similar to The Gap event in terms of its meteorology and severity.

But he said it was worse because it had hit a wider area, and swept through the middle of the city.

Hail in the Queen Street Mall during yesterday's storm. Source: Caitlin Mather

"What was unusual was it tracked through the Brisbane CBD itself. It's reminder that we do live in a region of the world where these severe thunderstorms can form," he said.

A number of Brisbane schools have been closed for the day in the aftermath of the damaging storm, including Brisbane State High School, Windsor State School, Yeronga State High School, St Laurence's College, South Brisbane, Our Lady's College, Annerley, Brisbane Grammar School, Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Brisbane Boys College, Sommerville House and St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School.