Power has been restored to most of the 55,000 homes and businesses in Western Australia that were plunged into darkness when a massive storm hit the southern part of the state.
Wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour ripped down fences, uprooted trees and damaged powerlines as heavy rain, hail, wind and big swells pummelled the capital, the South West, the South Coast and the Great Southern.
DFES Acting Chief Superintendent for southern WA Phil Brandrett said crews were overrun with calls for help, mainly from people around the Greater Bunbury area.
"The last two storm seasons there were approximately 575 requests for assistance between a period of May to October," he said.
"Whereas in the last 24 hours we received 500 requests for assistance across the state."
Thousands without power
Fifty-five thousand residents and business were left without power during the peak of the storm.
Western Power's Paul Entwistle said there were still pockets of outages around Perth and the South West, but crews would work into the evening to rectify the situation.
"Our crews were up in cherry pickers and elevated work platforms when there were still large gusts of wind coming through, addressing restoration and clearing away hazards," Mr Entwistle said.
"If the storm came through and only took an hour, we would have had many more hours yesterday dedicated just to restoration."
He said the outages were a priority for the power supplier.
"We have cancelled the majority of planned works in the metropolitan areas and in the regional areas affected by the storms."
Internet also disrupted
About 10,000 homes and businesses were also left without internet access for several hours at the peak of the storm, prompting some service providers to offer free data as compensation to customers.
National Broadband Network spokeswoman Jane McNamara said while there was no damage to infrastructure itself, the scale of the storm and power outages disrupted the service.
"The NBN network does have resilience and battery backup built into the network," Ms McNamara said.
"However when the power is impacted like it was, it will impact the ability to connect over the NBN."
Rain is expected to continue in parts of southern WA throughout the night.
