Over 6,000 homes and businesses woke to no power in the Illawarra, South Coast and Blue Mountains after a low-pressure system formed overnight generating cyclonic strength winds.
Wind gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour were recorded off Kiama and swell heights of eleven metres off Port Kembla.
Janine Cullen from Endeavour Energy said at the height of the storm 18,000 homes lost power with 300 electrical hazards recorded.
"They really have done a great job overnight and we'll have fresh crews this morning and hope to get everybody back on today."
The State Emergency Service received over 900 calls since it issued its severe weather warning for Sydney, the Illawarra and south coast districts with 230 requests still outstanding in the Illawarra.
Over 600 SES volunteers are out in the field backed up by requests to units from surrounding areas and ten teams from the RFS and Fire and Rescue NSW.
Richard Hart from the SES said a number of homes in Shell Cove and Albion Park lost their roofs:
He said the situation was highly dangerous for many of the crews working in the field.
"It was a pretty shocking wind gust. We are so used to the August winds but we weren't so used to them coming the way they did come and with the rain associated with them."
Some locations across the Illawarra received up to 80 millimetres of rain overnight.
Bureau of Meterology forecaster Hugh McDonald said conditions will ease through the course of the day but winds will remain strong and swells are dangerously high.
"That deep area low pressure that was plaguing the coast yesterday is continuing to move out into the Tasman so conditions are easing," he said.
"There is still that severe weather warning in place but that's more so for the damaging surf that's been created by this area of low pressure."
