Wild windy weather

The SES received 138 calls for assistance between Blackheath and Lapstone over the weekend with the majority of calls for trees that had fallen and caused damage to properties.

“The strongest wind gust recorded was 96 km/h at Mt Boyce early Saturday morning” said John Hughes, Local Controller for the Blue Mountains SES Unit.

“Shortly after we had a call for a tree blocking a lane of the Great Western Highway at Blaxland that had taken out power lines,” Mr Hughes said.

The SES responded all their local storm crews and called on the assistance of the Rural Fire Service volunteers from different brigades within the affected area. A number of power lines were damaged causing widespread blackouts which were made safe by Endeavour Energy.

“These strong winds were caused by a vigorous weather system that swept the southern and central western parts of the State on Friday night,” Mr Hughes said.

The Bureau of Meteorology recorded the apparent temperature (taking into account wind chill factor) as low as -10.2 degrees at Blackheath on Saturday night.

Power was lost in parts of the Mountains over the weekend as branches and trees came down on to lines.

A spokesman for Endeavour Energy said that thousands of customers right across the entire network were affected at one stage.

Problems started at about 11pm on the Friday evening when the wind really picked up and at the peak of the storm – 1pm on Saturday – there were 8,000 homes without power. 

Areas affected were Springwood/Winmalee, Wentworth Falls, and Bilpin/Berambing along Bells Line of Road.

Maintenance teams cancelled all planned work and concentrated on restoring power, the spokesman said. Most were back on by 10pm on Saturday night, although some households in outlying areas did not get power until 6pm Sunday.

The SES is seeking new volunteers. Anyone 16 years or older is welcome to attend an information night on August 17 at their headquarters in 3 Valley Road, Katoomba.