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Perth weather: Cold front gives city its wettest 24 hours of 2020

Daryna Zadvirna, Jake Dietsch and Aaron KirbyThe West Australian
VideoThousands of homes are without power as wild weather hit Perth and the South West overnight

Perth has experienced its wettest 24 hours in almost a year amid wild weather which left thousands without power and saw the roof of a house end up in a neighbour’s pool.

Bickley has recorded the city’s highest rainfall, with about 90mm in the past 24 hours, while the Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions have also received heavy falls, averaging at about 10-24mm in most locations.

A massive 38.2mm of rain fell on the city — the highest fall since July 5 last year, when a 44.2mm downpour drenched the city.

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In Mandurah, “Cyclonic” winds caused a roof to fly off a house and land 100 metres away in a neighbour’s swimming pool.

Mandurah State Emergency Services unit manager Chris Stickland the SES responded to a call for help about 10pm and found the roof of the Torwood Edge property had caused minor damage to a next door neighbour’s house before its watery end.

The SES secured the belongings of the damaged house but were unable to get on top of the two-story property due to the dangerous conditions.

Ms Stickland said the storm created some of the strongest winds volunteers had battled in years, with gusts of up to 120km/hr lashing the Mandurah coast.

“It was all along the coast, including Halls Head, Wannanup and Falcon,” Mr Stickland said.

“The wind was very powerful, it was one of the strongest storms we have endured in years.

“None of my volunteers were injured and no members of the public were injured that I’m aware of so we were fortunate. That was cyclonic wind.”

A patio in Greenfields also blew on to the roof of a property, while roof tiles were blown off other homes.

Gloria Hamilton was watching TV when she heard a “big bang” as part of the roof was torn away from her home.

“The kids were sleeping and my husband had just gone to sleep,” she said.

“My daughter woke up and said ‘mum I’m scared’ so then I comforted her.”

Ms Hamilton called the SES after discovering the damage had caused water to leak through the roof dangerously close to power plugs and TV cords.

About 138 calls were made to SES volunteers around WA overnight, with most damage caused in the Bunbury region.

Gusts of about 118km/h were recorded at Pinjarra, 93km/h at Garden Island and 91 km/h at Rottnest Island.

Western Power has advised repair work on damaged powerlines has begun, with about 1800 homes in the Perth metro area still without power.

The Wilson car park in Pier Street in the Perth CBD is without power and customers are being asked to pay a flat rate of $10 when they leave.

This morning, more than 3000 homes and businesses were left in the dark, thanks to fallen powerlines in the storm.

A Bureau of Meteorology weather warning is still in place with damaging winds averaging 60km/h and peaking at 100km/h possible from Bunbury all the way along the coast to Esperance.

Showers are expected to continue throughout the day and the Bureau of Meteorology said weather conditions will ease during the remainder of the morning.

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