Wild weather causes more than 130,000 to lose power

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A man has died in severe storms - that caused damage across New South Wales yesterday. In the Hunter region, a roof at Cessnock High school was torn off.

Transcript

00:00There has been a big cleanup happening here in Cessnock in the NSW Hunter Valley.

00:07As you can see behind me, a trampoline has smashed into this car and also this shed garage

00:14situation as a residence property in Cessnock.

00:17I actually just went inside with the owner of this residence who showed me some CCTV

00:23footage and you can see the trampoline come from the resident across the road, the neighbour's

00:28house lifted up by the strong winds that were lashing this area yesterday.

00:33Blown right across, it's actually hit a corner of the roof and you can see tiling that's

00:37come across and it's all across the driveway and then it's come and hit the shed and hit

00:42a bit of the car.

00:43So this is just one story of hundreds that we're hearing right across this region, right

00:49across the Hunter but also across the state.

00:52The SES were busy overnight with more than 2,000 calls for assistance and they were

00:58expecting more calls today as people woke up and really got to assess the damage and

01:02see what happened on their properties and it was for things like this.

01:07We also heard reports of trees that had fallen on homes, branches that had fallen on roofs,

01:13trees that had fallen on power lines causing mass power outages right across the state.

01:19Ausgrid, the electricity company that covers this region here, Cessnock, but also covers

01:25south of Sydney, Sydney, Central Coast, Hunter region, they said 140,000 homes and businesses

01:32actually lost power last night but they've been working hard today to try and restore

01:37as much of that as possible and as quickly as possible and we believe about 90,000 properties

01:42are still without power at the moment.

01:45So a lot has been happening here, Ros, and as you mentioned, some really devastating

01:50news elsewhere in the state, a man believed to be in his 80s in Cowra that actually died

01:55yesterday afternoon after a tree fell on his car.

01:59Luckily no injuries reported here in the Hunter but word has spread about that and it's really

02:04shocking news.

02:05Yes it is.

02:06And is there any concern heading into the weekend, Keeley?

02:11As you might be able to see or hear around me, there's still strong winds here in Cessnock.

02:16We've got thunderstorms still rolling in and the rain is still coming down.

02:20Heavy rainfall is expected across parts of New South Wales this evening into tomorrow

02:26and that's actually caused the Bureau of Meteorology to put out an initial flood watch for minor

02:31flooding across much of the state's rivers from about Central Coast all the way to the

02:37North Coast.

02:38So they're saying we're not out of the clear yet.

02:40A lot of people are hopeful that this will be a time that they can clean up, assess the

02:46damage, get back to normal, get their power back on, but also SES telling people to look

02:51out for flooding and if it does eventuate, of course, for people not to enter or drive

02:57through floodwaters.

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