Storm, rain hit Perth, South West
Western Power is working to restore power to 1000 metropolitan and country homes after wild weather lashed Perth and the South West yesterday.
More than 200 homes in the eastern Wheatbelt town of Koorda are without power this morning after an outage at 5am.
Metropolitan areas of Mirrabooka, Lesmurdie and Thornlie each have about 60 residents without power.
In north coastal areas Seabird and Gabbadah, 120 and 180 homes are without power respectively.
A Western power spokesman said several crews were oworking to restore electricity as soon as possible.
“We are trying to work as fast as we can. The plan is to restore the homes by later today,” he said.
Damaging winds lashed the South West coast yesterday, with gusts of 124km/h at Cape Naturaliste, 111km/h at Cape Leeuwin and 106km/h at Rottnest Island.
From 9am to 9pm, Perth received 14.8mm of rain, 33mm fell in Bickley, 28mm in Bridgetown and 23.6mm in Newdegate.
About 26,000 homes lost power last night. Western Power crews worked through the night to restore power.
The forecast today is for scattered showers becoming isolated during the morning. Winds will be southwesterly 25km/h to 35km/h becoming light in the late afternoon.
The Weather Bureau said yesterday the cold front had brought unusually strong winds and the type of weather Perth had only once or twice a year.
The winds caused damage from Lancelin to Margaret River, with SES volunteers responding to 45 storm call-outs by 10.30pm.
Bunbury's Trafalgar Hotel had part of its roof ripped off about 11.30am, forcing emergency authorities to close parts of the CBD. A three-storey building on Cunliffe Street in Lancelin had part of its roof ripped off yesterday afternoon.
A tree crashed through the roof of a home in the southern suburb of Medina. Wind gusts also blew down part of a fence housing ponies from the Gypsy Circus in Langley Park on Riverside Drive.
Three ponies had to be cajoled back into the enclosure by staff members.
The mercury is forecast to fall to just 4C tomorrow morning after a maximum 17C today, before finer weather returns over the weekend.
Weather Bureau spokesman Neil Bennett said the worst of the weather had passed through Perth.
"We'll probably see a slow ease in the rain today as the front passes, with the wind and cloud cover keeping the temperature up," he said.
The cold front was moving east last night through the Wheatbelt and Goldfields.
Towns including Esperance and Southern Cross were warned to prepare for damaging wind gusts of up to 125km/h.
