Lifesaving Championship events cancelled, grandstand damaged after wild weather hits coast

Residents at a unit complex in Glenelg North have been left temporarily homeless after severe weather ripped the roof off the building. The wild weather also forced the Lifesaving World Championships to cancel all their ocean events.

• Thousands still without power, and more storms coming

Residents at a unit complex in Glenelg North have been left temporarily homeless after severe weather ripped the roof off their building and destroyed their belongings inside.

The wild weather also forced the Lifesaving World Championships to cancel all their ocean events for Wednesday.

The events team spent the day surveying the damage to the beachside infrastructure and grandstand.

The damage bill was estimated at around $250,000 by Surf Lifesaving SA president John Baker.

The ocean events have been rescheduled for Friday while all beach and pool events went ahead as planned on Thursday.

Since 10am on Wednesday about 100,000 properties lost power across South Australia because of the storm system.

SA PowerNetworks crews battled the elements to restore power to more than 70,000 of the properties.

Surinder Kumar in his Glenelg North apartment. Picture: Russell Millard/AAP

More than 500 SES volunteers responded to about 1200 call outs since Wednesday afternoon as strong winds and heavy rain lashed the state, ripping tiles and sheets from rooves, felling trees and bringing down powerlines.

Three units were severely damaged at the North Esplanade complex at about 9.45pm on Wednesday.

A resident in one of those units has told how strong winds tore the roof off his home and left the inside of his property exposed to the very cold and wet weather.

In pictures: Storm damage across Adelaide

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Surinder Kumar described the incident as “scary”.

“Last night … it was very strong winds at that time and the roof has gone within two minutes,” he told The Advertiser. “There’s nothing there. It was very noisy.”

The 42-year-old said he lost all his belongings when rain pelted into his unit.

“Everything’s gone,” he said. “Everything is water damaged and broken down.”

Mr Kumar was forced to take refuge in a friend’s undamaged unit in the same complex.

He said he was still coming to terms with what had happened on Thursday morning.

“Within two minutes you are homeless — it’s hard,” he said.

It is understood at least one child lives in one of the damaged units.

Storm damage at the Surf Lifesaving Championships has forced the event to be cancelled. Picture: Russell Millard/AAP

The outside view of the Glenelg North apartment complex. Picture: Russell Millard/AAP

Of the other properties damaged during the storm, a Goolwa resident discovered a neighbour’s veranda had become detached and landed in the backyard of their Bristow Smith Avenue house about 12.30am.

A fascia and part of the roof of a house on the Esplanade at Henley Beach South collapsed just before 1am.

And a carport was blown over and came to a rest against a neighbour’s fence on Glenburnie St, Seaton about 1.40am.

Overnight, 15.4mm of rain fell in Adelaide and 34.8mm fell in Mount Lofty.

Another cold day is ahead with 18C forecast, along with a chance of showers and a thunderstorm in the morning, easing throughout the day.

A severe weather warning for damaging winds has again been issued for today.

The warning area includes Kangaroo Island, Mount Lofty Ranges, Murraylands, Upper South East and Lower South East districts.