One killed and another injured as NSW battered by wild winds

A woman was killed and another was in hospital after wild winds battered NSW on Monday.

Dozens of flights were cancelled and large parts of the state were put on bushfire alert as the SES responded to more than 750 incidents. Approximately 600 of those related to fallen trees, many of which came down on power lines, homes and cars.

Almost half of SES responses came on Monday morning, primarily in metropolitan Sydney and the state’s south-east.

Gusts of 106km/h recorded at Camden Airport 11.40am were the strongest in the Sydney area. Shortly after, a woman in her 50s was taken to Liverpool Hospital in a stable condition after her car was hit by a falling tree in Camden.

“During strong winds, we strongly advise people to remain indoors and away from trees and powerlines,” SES Chief Superintendent Dallas Burnes said.

Wind speeds in NSW were strongest at Thredbo in the state’s south, where gusts reached 117km/h.

Wind gusts of up 106km/h lashed parts of Sydney. Credit: Edwina Pickles

The severe weather warnings for damaging winds have been lifted for Sydney, the Hunter, the Illawarra, South Coast, Snowy Mountains, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands and South West Slopes.

Just before 4am on Monday, a woman was killed when a cabin she was sleeping in at a Moama holiday park on the NSW-Victorian border was crushed by a falling tree.

The 63-year-old woman is yet to be formally identified, and a report is being prepared for the coroner. A 63-year-old man was taken to Echuca hospital for treatment.

A Tasman Holiday Parks spokeswoman said the company was devastated by the woman’s death.

“We extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of both cabin occupants and our thoughts are with the gentleman currently being treated in hospital,” she said.

“We are also providing immediate support for our team on site who are understandably very distressed by this terrible accident.”

Almost 100 flights were cancelled at Sydney Airport, where wind speeds of 85km/h were recorded. Operations were limited to just one of the airport’s three runways.

Train services were also impacted in Sydney’s north after a tree fell on overhead wires at Normanhurst train station. Buses replaced trains between Hornsby and Epping during the afternoon peak before the tree was removed and services slowly returned to normal about 6pm.

An uprooted tree downed power lines on Burns Road in Springwood. Credit: Wolter Peeters

Authorities are also battling several bushfires, with total fire bans in place for Sydney and Illawarra region and as far south as Durras North near Batemans Bay.

An emergency warning had been issued for a fire north of Newcastle at Old Punt Road in Tomago, with people advised to seek shelter, before its status was downgraded to watch and act.

Another fire briefly forced the closure of the Princess Highway north of Wollongong before being contained.

About 33,000 properties are without power across the state due to the wild weather. The Southern Highlands is the worst affected region, and Blackheath in the Blue Mountains is the worst affected town.

A bushfire near Tomago Road, north of Newcastle, is burning out of control.Credit: RFS

More than 29,000 Endeavour Energy customers are without power, while hundreds of Essential Energy customers are also affected.

About 3500 Ausgrid customers are experiencing outages, down from a peak of 8700 earlier in the day. The majority of outages were in Sydney’s north shore and northern beaches, and along the South Coast. Newcastle also saw a large number of downed lines as winds affected the area on Monday afternoon.

Over 600 Essential Energy customers are also currently without power, with over half in the town of Bulahdelah. Essential had 4300 customers affected by outages throughout the day.

Because of the fire bans, Endeavour Energy has disabled its automated technology network, meaning services must be reconnected manually.

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