Cars damaged when storm dislodged Harbour Bridge road plate

The Royal National Park recorded 30mm of rain yesterday – the most of the drenching.

The lightning and thunder show was dramatic to watch, but travellers heading into Sydney Airport were inconvenienced when more than 20 flights were cancelled. A Qatar Airlines flight from Doha to Sydney was diverted to Brisbane when it was unable to land during the storm.

The State Emergency Service responded to 278 incidents statewide – 81 of those were in Sydney, 50 in southern NSW and 49 in western parts of the state.

The worst-hit place in the state was Carinda, a small town of just 93 residents near Walgett. Damaging winds destroyed the roofs of the local pub, a pizza restaurant and the general store, a NSW SES spokesperson said.

The winds took down power lines and disrupted the town’s electricity supply.

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There are scattered power outages across Sydney, including at Auburn, where more than 500 people have been without electricity since about 8pm on Sunday. Ausgrid is working to restore power, which is estimated to come back about 10am.

There are also outages on the Central Coast and around Newcastle.

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