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Storm Season in Brisbane: Getting Your Phone Ready, and What to Do After

When a Brisbane storm cuts the power, your mobile is your torch, radio and only phone. How to get it ready, which alerts to turn on, and what to do after.

By the Mr. Phone Taigum repair team, checked by David, our senior technician 6 min read

Why does your mobile matter more in a storm?

Queensland's severe weather season runs from October to April, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and in the south-east severe thunderstorms are most likely in the first half of it. Storm season brings the same phone problems every year: phones dropped in floodwater, batteries too tired to last a night without power, and phones that go flat just when they're needed most.

A storm that takes the power out also takes out more than the lights:

  • An nbn home phone stops working in a blackout. Telstra says it won't work without power, not even for 000 calls (unless you have a battery backup and a phone that doesn't need mains power).
  • The Wi-Fi goes down, so your phone is your only internet.
  • Mobile towers lose mains power too. They have batteries, but the federal Department of Infrastructure notes that backup power at a tower lasts only a few hours, while outages can last days. If your phone drops to SOS, here's what it can still do.

In March 2025, ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred left hundreds of thousands of homes across South East Queensland without power, some of them for days. That's the kind of week to plan for.

What should I do before the season?

1. Check the battery you already have

A phone that lasts a full day when it's new might manage half a day after two or three years. On an iPhone, look at Settings → Battery → Battery Health; on a Samsung, the Samsung Members app has a battery test. If it's below about 80% or the phone shuts down early, a new battery is the best storm preparation the phone itself can get. See our guide to iPhone battery health.

2. Get a power bank, and keep it charged

The Get Ready Queensland emergency kit list includes a spare phone charger and a fully charged power pack. Energex suggests keeping a couple of fully charged power banks and charging all your devices before a storm arrives.

  • A power bank of about 10,000 mAh will refill most phones once or twice.
  • Charge it every few months: they slowly lose charge sitting in a drawer.
  • A car charger works too, but only run the engine outside in the open air, never in a closed garage.

3. Turn on the alerts

Warnings in Queensland use the three Australian Warning System levels: Advice, Watch and Act, and Emergency Warning. An Emergency Warning means act now.

What do I do when a storm is on its way?

  1. Charge everything to 100%: the phone, the power bank, the watch, a spare old phone if you have one.
  2. Download offline maps of your area: in Google Maps, tap your profile picture, then Offline maps; in Apple Maps (iOS 17 and later), tap your picture, then Offline Maps. Roads close quickly in a flood.
  3. Save the numbers above in your contacts, so you can find them without the internet.
  4. Take photos of your house and belongings while everything's still fine. If you need to claim insurance later, before-photos help.
  5. Unplug chargers you aren't using during a lightning storm.
  6. Put the phone somewhere dry and high. A zip-lock bag costs nothing and keeps rain and splashes out.

How do I make one charge last in a blackout?

Your goal is to make one charge last as long as possible:

  • Turn on Low Power Mode (iPhone) or Power saving (Samsung). It cuts background activity and makes a real difference.
  • Turn the screen brightness down. The screen is the biggest drain.
  • Text instead of calling when you can. Texts get through on a weak signal when calls won't, and they leave the network free for emergency calls.
  • Close the apps you don't need, especially maps, video and games.
  • Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if the Wi-Fi is down anyway.
  • Keep the phone cool and dry. A hot car or a sunny windowsill drains a battery faster.

If the mobile network goes quiet, don't keep restarting the phone: searching for a signal uses battery. Check every so often instead.

What should I check after the storm?

  • If your phone got wet, turn it off and don't charge it, even if it seems fine. What it got wet with matters: floodwater is never just water. Read what to do when a phone gets wet.
  • If it won't charge after the storm, check the cable and the power point first, then look for lint or grit in the port.
  • If a power bank or charger got wet or hot, throw it out safely rather than risk it.
  • If you're claiming insurance for a damaged phone, keep it, photograph it, and note its model and serial number (in Settings → General → About on an iPhone, or Settings → About phone on Android) before you get it looked at. Most insurers want a repairer's report: here's how a damage report works.

Sources

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