A spectacular storm swept through Brisbane overnight with more than 250,000 lightning strikes recorded in less than an hour, 130,000 people left without power, a man shocked while he was having a shower, and a building exploding in the CBD (not really).
Who even knew that was possible. Fortunately, the man was only injured in the strike, and Brisbane is back to normalcy (well, it’s Brisbane, so some sense of normalcy) this morning, although an estimated 60,000 homes were still without power.
One group of folks who didn’t lose the lights – and we’re still not sure how – were those staying at the Park Regis Hotel on the edge of the Brisbane CBD.
New Matilda editor Chris Graham was filming the storm from his balcony in South Brisbane, when this happened….
Remarkably, the power to the Park Regis stayed on after the strike, although New Matilda was unable to confirm rumours that hotel management had to call in tradies overnight to deal with an overload on the plumbing.