Australia’s east lashed by storms

SYDNEY: More than 55,000 properties in Sydney and the Central Coast were still without power yesterday after thunderstorms savaged the NSW coast on Saturday, and the cleanup is expected to take several days.

Torrential rain, damaging wind and hailstones the size of golf balls lashed Sydney and the Hunter region on Saturday afternoon, bringing down trees and hundreds of power lines.

Sydney’s north was hardest hit, with parts of the Parramatta and Campbelltown areas and the southern part of the Central Coast also damaged.

The SES said it had received close to 7000 calls for help, mainly for fallen trees and roof damage.

Emergency services were bracing for more severe thunderstorms that had been forecast.

Network operators Endeavour Energy and Ausgrid said more than 750 electrical hazards needed to be repaired before supply could be restored to 56,000 homes.

The hazards include snapped poles that left a twisted mess of downed powerlines in many locations. Repairing the sites was expecting to take hundreds of hours of work.

Trains across Sydney were back to normal service yesterday morning after crews worked ‘‘extremely hard overnight to recover from the storm damage’’, a Transport For NSW spokeswoman said.

In Victoria, there were flash floods in parts of outer Melbourne, turning backyards, suburban streets and ponds into gushing rivers.

Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said few parts of the state had been spared the impact of the storms.

And Tasmanians on the island’s east and northeast had a wild night on Saturday, with heavy rain causing flash flooding.