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South WA mops up from third severe storm in a week

Updated June 13, 2012 08:57:04

Emergency services will assess damage this morning from the third severe storm to hit the southern half of Western Australia in a week.

Gusting winds of up to 113 kilometres an hour, thunder and heavy rain caused power outages to 34,000 properties throughout the state.

The storm hit the Perth metropolitan area around 9:30pm (AWST), bringing wind gusts of 107 kilometres an hour as well as heavy rain and thunder for most of the night.

A house in Pinjarra lost its roof last night and another was badly damaged in Bouvard near Mandurah when a tree fell on it overnight.

Carol Coppin says she had to crawl out of her home when the tree came crashing down.

“We were just sitting watching tv and the wind came up and [there was an] almighty crash and a big tree just took out the front of the house,” she said.

“I crawled out through all these limbs and bushes, very scary.”

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) says it answered more than 118 calls for help.

FESA’s spokesman Allen Gale says the storm was not as severe as Sunday’s.

“I think we fared very well actually on the west coast and on the south west corner,” he said.

“Certainly a lot of calls in from Mandurah and Rockingham again and in the Bunbury area but mainly of a minor nature.”

There appeared to be no major damage in Perth.

Winds were stronger in the south-west with gusts reaching 113 kilometres an hour at Cape Leeuwin.

Farming areas in the Great Southern and Central Wheatbelt received up to 30 millimetres of rain.

The State Emergency Services crew was told to step down as conditions became too dangerous in the south-west.

“We’ve got 335 SES volunteers on board at the moment and 25 crews from South Australia arriving in Perth to assist as well,” FESA spokeswoman Kathy Nastov said.

Power blackouts are currently affecting about 27,000 properties, including 10,000 from Sunday’s severe storm.

More than 160,000 homes were left without power after that storm but most have been reconnected.

The storm also hit the telephone network after power was cut to service towers.

FESA is warning residents in Bridgetown, Southern Cross, York, Albany, Katanning, Narrogin, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Eucla and surrounding regions to be prepared for more bad weather.

 

Topics:storm-event, weather, storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, wa, perth-6000

First posted June 13, 2012 06:02:35