NSW: Severe weather warning remains for NSW
Wed Aug 26 02:56:27 EST 2009
Tue Aug 25 16:56:27 UTC 2009
SYDNEY, Aug 26 AAP - A severe weather warning remains in place for the NSW southeast after gale force winds brought widespread damage and caused power outages to more than 7,000 Sydney homes.
The State Emergency Service (SES) received more than 450 requests for assistance by Tuesday evening and is bracing for a possible repeat on Wednesday.
"Squally westerly winds are expected to develop over the southeastern NSW Tuesday night or early Wednesday ahead of a cold front," an SES statement says.
The weather warning is in force for the Riverina, southwest slopes, southern tablelands, the ACT, Illawarra, south coast metropolitan, central tablelands and Alpine areas.
West to northwest winds are expected to average over 65km/h at times with peak wind gusts in excess of 90km/h, the Bureau of Meteorology reports.
The warning follows weather on Tuesday when more than 7,000 homes across Sydney were blacked out, with many outages caused by trees falling on power lines.
The extreme weather also caused flight delays of up to an hour at Sydney Airport and led to widespread delays at Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra airports.
