Severe cold front hits WA, bringing heavy rain, damaging winds
Updated
The full force of mother nature is being felt in Western Australia as emergency services deal with damaging wind gusts from a severe cold front that is also dumping heavy rain in Perth and the state's south-west.
The front crossed the coast late Thursday afternoon and has seen wind gusts of 113 kilometres per hour in the farming town of Gnowangerup and at Cape Naturaliste on the coast.
More than 75 millimetres of rain has been dumped on Vasse and more than 69mm at nearby Busselton.
Perth has recorded more than 28mm of rain so far, with Swanbourne and Rottnest receiving 39mm.
Damaging gusts not over
The Bureau of Meteorology is warning the heavy rain and damaging winds are set to continue.
Duty forecaster Matt Botherhoven said another deep low pressure was approaching the state's south-west.
"Residents from Lancelin, north of Perth, to Albany on the state's south coast can expect heavy rain and wind gusts of 100 kilometres an hour throughout the day," he said.
Western Power said it was still assessing the impact of the storm on its network across the state.
The State Emergency Service has received more than 60 calls for help.
A spokeswoman said the calls came in late yesterday from Perth and Busselton, but the damage to homes and property overnight had extended to dozens of towns across the Wheatbelt and the state's south-west.
Widespread blackouts
Western Power said 9,500 properties had been blacked out by the storms.
More than 3,000 of those were north of Perth, including Jurien Bay, where 1,700 customers were without power.
Another 5,600 customers have been hit south of Perth.
The worst affected towns are Mt Barker and Boddington.
In Perth, almost 600 homes and businesses are affected.
Western Power said crews had been working throughout the night to repair the damage.
The utility is also urging customers to keep away from fallen power lines, to call Western Power on 13 13 51 to report damage and keep at least eight metres away from any such hazard.
Topics: storm-event, weather, wa
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