‘Prepare for extended outages’: More than 30,000 homes without power as WA storm rages on

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has upgraded wild weather warnings across the state to watch-and-act levels due to damaging to destructive winds forecast this evening.

Thousands of WA homes are without power across the state as wild weather continues to batter the South West and metropolitan areas, with experts warning the strong winds will continue into Monday.

DFES has reported that more than 511 requests for assistance as a result of the severe weather, with the highest number of reports coming from the Perth metropolitan area, followed by Peel, the South West and the Lower South West

Reports include water ingress, flooding, roof damage, structural damage and fallen trees.

DFES says significant roof damage has occurred to apartment buildings in Cottesloe and Bunbury, warning that strong winds may cause roofing material and debris to become airborne, posing a risk to people, vehicles and nearby properties.

More than 30,000 customers are without power across parts of the metropolitan and South West regions. Western Power emergency response crews are working to address more than 160 hazards and outages caused by severe storm conditions.

Damaging and destructive winds associated with the storm have thrown debris, including tree branches, into the network, damaging equipment and bringing down powerlines.

A Western Power spokesperson said the corporation had restored thousands of customers throughout the day but as the storm front continues, numbers may climb as damage is reported.

“There are further damaging and destructive winds forecast throughout the evening, and we recommend affected customers prepare for extended outages with many customers expected to be without power overnight,” the spokesperson said.

“Our priority is responding to reported hazards to ensure the safety of the community and our crews.

“Due to the severe weather and dangerous winds, our crews cannot currently undertake repair works as it is unsafe to operate equipment like elevated work platforms or conduct network patrols via helicopter.”

People leaving the West Coast Eagles match at Optus Stadium this evening have been urged to take extra care when travelling home.

Transperth announced that trains between Fremantle station and North Fremantle station are cancelled due to a technical issue, although replacement buses are running.

A tree has fallen on a power line which has caused an outage to more than 1000 customers in Dianella, while more than 5000 homes are without power in the state’s South West region.

Western Power expects power in several of the impacted areas to be back up by 6pm on Monday.

The Bureau of Meteorology has advised that a deepening and intense low-pressure system will approach the southwest today and will bring a significant burst of damaging to locally destructive winds to western and southern parts of the South West Land Division.

By Monday the system is expected to move to the east with the risk of damaging winds shifting towards southeastern Western Australia.

“The winds associated with the low-pressure system during Sunday afternoon, evening and Monday morning are expected to produce dangerous weather that is only seen once every three to five years in the southwest of Western Australia,” a BoM spokesperson said.

However, the risk of heavy rainfall has now eased.

BoM has also warned that the deepening low-pressure system offshore southwest of Perth is bringing gale force westerly winds, elevated sea levels and large and powerful waves.

“Tides are likely to rise well above the normal high tide mark during Sunday morning,” the spokesperson said.

“Tides are also expected to rise well above the normal high tide mark for coastal areas between Jurien Bay and Israelite Bay during the Monday morning high tide.

“Beach conditions in these areas could be dangerous and people should stay well away from the surf and surf exposed areas.”