Clean-up begins after Qld storms

The clean up is underway after severe storms uprooted trees, felled power lines, washed away cars and shut down Brisbane's commuter rail network.

The storms hit southeast Queensland late on Wednesday afternoon, bringing driving rain and powerful wind gusts of over 100km/h to some areas.

The two hardest hit suburbs were on opposite sides of Brisbane - the southwest suburb of Inala recorded 100mm of rain in one hour, while the northside suburb of Geebung was hit with 95mm of rain in one hour.

Heavy downpours flooded many parts of the city, washing away a number of cars, including in inner city suburbs like Bowen Hills.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services told AAP swift water rescue teams were called to some reports of people trapped in flooded cars, but they managed to escape by the time crews arrived.

Emergency services received around 250 calls for assistance - more than 90 from within the Brisbane city area.

Energex recorded more than 16,000 lightning strikes and said at the peak of the storms 250,000 homes and business had power problems.

About 530 customers still didn't have power on Thursday morning.

Trains, buses and ferries were also disrupted, with hundreds of commuters forced to wait for hours because of flooded train tracks in some CBD stations.

Translink took to Twitter to announce that all rail, bus and ferry services had returned to normal on Thursday morning.

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Clean-up begins after Qld storms