A thousand homes still without power after severe flash flooding on WA’s south coast
More than 1000 homes are still without power in the Great Southern region after flash flooding brought down power lines.
Roads are also being repaired after the powerful storm left a trail of destruction on WA’s south coast on Monday.
About 13,000 properties were without power after the floods but many had electricity reconnected by this morning.
However, according to the Western Power website just over 1000 properties in the Great Southern region are still without power as of 9.30am this morning.
This includes 369 homes in the towns of Kendenup and Tenterden, 180 houses in the suburbs of Hay, Denmark and Scotsdale and 128 homes in Mt Melville.
About 90 customers are affected in the Albany town centre.
More than 100mm of rain fell in areas between Albany and Denmark, with wind gusts of more than 100km/h, which pushed down trees over roads and destroyed power lines.
The State Emergency Services responded to about 150 call-outs.
The two main roads between Albany and Denmark — South Coast Highway and Lower Denmark Road — sustained significant structural damage and were closed.
The City of Albany yesterday urged people to stay indoors if possible with clean-up crews hard at work and conditions still posing risks.
Albany SES manager Robert Boyes said it was the most widespread storm damage he had seen.
“The requests for assistance are ranging from roofs off, guttering gone, a lot of tree damage,” he said.
“It is compounded by the fact there is a lot of power off and a lot of people don’t have water as well.”
“The railway line down at Cuthbert was damaged to the extent they had to cancel all the trains.
“The coastal strips seems to be pretty well hammered and some of the trees have gone over.”
Mr Boyes said emergency responders still had a lot of work ahead of them.
With the amount of damage across Albany, he called for patience as SES volunteers attend the most urgent jobs first.
“We’ve had assistance from all of the bushfire brigades are out here from Napier, Kalgan, Upper Great Southern, South Coast — they’ve all come in with their trucks to pump water because there has been major flooding all over the place,” he said.
City of Albany infrastructure, development and environment director Paul Camins said the trail of damage would take days to clear.
The National Anzac Centre and Princess Royal Fortress were closed while crews assessed the damage to the site, including to the roof of the NAC.
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