Perth has endured a second night of gale force winds and sideways rain as another monster cold front smashed the southern parts of the State.
Power blackouts are continuing to cause headaches with Western Power reporting 74 known outages affecting 8,100 customers – 4,200 in the metropolitan area and 3,900 in regional areas and in the South West.
Many of those people can expect to be without electricity until at least Wednesday afternoon.
Perth Airport was sent into chaos on Tuesday night after the power went out for hours, delaying check-ins and flights after a high-voltage transmission pole was damaged.
Flights were back up and running on Wednesday morning but the airport was backlogged with passengers attempting to get through security, with the flow on effects of the impact still being felt.
Hundreds of people in high-vis were at Terminal 2 as regional flights were taking off. The line to get through to security was almost out the door as people raced to make their flight on time.
A Western Power spokeswoman said crews and the network operations center worked through the night in difficult circumstances to make hazards safe and restore power where they could with around 1000 homes restored during the night.
“While further hazards and faults were reported overnight, storm-related damage to infrastructure was less than experienced yesterday where a peak of 35,000 customers experienced interruptions to their power supply.”
All available crews are working to restore power however the spokesperson warned there may be some homes and businesses that experience an extended outage due to continuing bad weather.
“Damaging and destructive winds associated with the front experienced during the last 24 hours have thrown debris, including tree branches, into the network, damaging equipment and bringing down powerlines.
“Our priority during the storm is responding to reported hazards first before we repair and restore.”
Homes have also copped a lashing, with damaged roofs and fallen trees blocking roads.
There are report a ceiling has collapsed at a property on Lakeside Drive in Joondalup and emergency services are responding to storm damage in Maddington.
In the South west, power lines are down in Margaret river with reports of lines down on Railway Terrace and Wallcliffe Road and Ashton Street and Nebbiolo Place.
A severe weather warning remains for Perth and the southern parts of WA. Stormy conditions are set to ease later this afternoon.
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