Sydney, Jan 16 (Agency) Over 100,000 homes have been in power outage after damaging storms hit Sydney and surrounding areas in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). The severe thunderstorms swept across the state on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, causing widespread damage.Australia’s power provider Ausgrid said on Thursday morning that in total, 140,000 customers were affected by the storm and power has now been restored to 58,000 homes and businesses. Meanwhile, Ausgrid customers have reported over 560 electrical hazards including fallen wires, trees and branches on powerlines. Extra Ausgrid emergency crews have worked throughout the night to remove electrical hazards caused by significant storm damage, said the power provider. The storm was the biggest to hit Sydney in several years, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Ausgrid spokesperson as saying on Thursday. The worst impacted areas are in Sydney’s north, southwest and the inner city, as well as in Newcastle Coastal areas. Another power provider Essential Energy, which provides power to the bulk of regional NSW, has also reported that more than 50,000 customers have been impacted by outages at some point during the storms.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said it received more than 2,200 calls for assistance in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, the majority of which were related to fallen trees or powerlines and damaged properties. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) cancelled severe thunderstorm warning for people in Mid North Coast, Hunter, North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands Forecast Districts in NSW on Thursday morning, saying severe thunderstorms have eased over inland northeastern NSW. However, the situation will continue to be monitored and further warnings will be issued if necessary. Severe storms were forecast to continue on Thursday into Friday and Saturday in Sydney and surrounding areas. The SES has warned people camping along rivers on NSW’s central and north coasts to prepare for severe weather, and authorities have issued flood watch warnings for several regions.