News Service from House Harris

NSW: 'Terrifying' storm rips roofs off homes in country town

SYDNEY, Dec 30 AAP - A storm that ripped roofs from homes as it lashed through a small town in northern NSW was "terrifying", the owner of the local pub says.

Boggabilla, just south of Goondiwindi on the Queensland border, bore the brunt of a storm that hit the Hunter Valley on Monday afternoon and headed north, State Emergency Services (SES) spokeswoman Erin Pogmore said.

"We had a team out doing a reconnaissance (in Boggabilla) last night," she said.

"There are eleven homes that we know of that are damaged. It was mainly the main street that was affected, with trees down and some damage to roofs."

No one in the town was injured during the storm, she said.

Terry Shelly, owner of the Wobbly Boot Hotel in Boggabilla, which was extensively damaged in the storm, described the experience as "terrifying".

"At Toobeah, 15km away, there was a red dust storm coming from there and another storm coming from the (south) and they met up just outside town and bang!" Mr Shelly said.

"It was terrifying."

Mr Shelly, who said he had never seen a storm like it in the 12 years he had lived in Boggabilla, described the chaos surrounding his pub.

"There's a big pine tree down across the back of it, there's another hedge tree that has taken out my back power pole, trees down ... wrecked guttering, twisted poles, wood, timber.

"I've lost two back fences, one side fence, it ripped a power box off, the wires are down, I've got wires across the backyard," he added.

"All good fun."

But he said he was "more fortunate than a few other people around the place."

"There's one house on the corner of Simpson Street and the highway - half the roof went one way, the other half went inside ... The poor dear, her house is totalled," he said.

"(It was) just completely renovated and everything."

Another house on Simpson Street had also lost its roof, he said.

Although Boggabilla residents awoke to beautiful sunshine on Tuesday, with the storm believed to have moved east off the NSW coast and out to sea, the SES said staff were on standby to handle calls if they came in.

It received 100 calls statewide on Monday, with 32 calls originating from the Hunter region, where the storm also pulled down trees and damaged roofs.