State emergency service volunteers returned to their Mandurah headquarters in the late hours of Wednesday night to find their building had also been damaged by the storms, with a near-miss lightning strike cutting power.
Western Power remained on site on Thursday morning restoring service to the building as local volunteers continued to mop up from heavy rains overnight.
A fallen tree in last night’s storm.Credit: Night News
Severe thunderstorms across Perth and WA’s southern regions led to the SES receiving more than 45 calls for help statewide, mostly for water ingress, flooding and downed trees.
Mandurah SES emergency services manager Chris Stickland said 35 volunteers attended six local call-outs after 20 millimetres of rain dropped on the southern coastal suburbs just after 6.30pm.
“The conditions were atrocious, thunder, lightning and a mass of rain,” he said.
“It was hard to operate on the road, let alone on roofs in dangerous conditions.
“The good thing is no one in the public got hurt, and all volunteers came back safe – very tired, hungry and wet.”
He said half the work was concentrated on homes still under tarps from a mini tornado which hit the region several weeks ago, with the other half dedicated to new call-outs for minor flooding.
With more than 39 years experience with the SES and 35 years living in Mandurah, Stickland said there had been a noticeable change in the weather pattern.
“The storm events we’re having are more extreme; we tend to have more violent storms like thunder and lightning and more rain at one time,” he said.
“This year we’ve seen a horrendous amount of rain.
“These types of thunderstorms we normally have in February and March with the warmer weather, but now we’re seeing them right through to the winter season.”
Mandurah SES, the largest SES group in the state, have a range of 60km from Golden Bay to Clifton.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported on Thursday morning strong wind gusts of up to 98km/hr were reported at Rottnest Island with Perth Airport also hit with gusts up to 90 km/hr.
In the metro area, Bickley copped 38mm and the Swan Valley 20mm.
The City received about 14mm in the 24 hours before 9am on Thursday morning.
“The Perth metro itself had some rain in the early evening and a big chunk early morning - a lot of that would have been in short, sharp showers,” a BOM spokesperson said.
“It was a blustery time throughout, but it was not entirely unexpected, there were warnings out.”
Thunder and lightning cells continued off the coast on Thursday morning with conditions easing later in the day.
More than a thousand homes remained without power as of 11am on Thursday with the majority of those located in Wanneroo, Cannington and Rockingham.
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