[PHOTOS] Perth Storm: Winds up to 113km/h Overnight, South Coast and Inland Areas Warned
Western Australia suffered yet again from another severe weather disturbance that has left about 34,000 homes without power Tuesday night, as wind gusts averaging 107 km/h and reaching 113 km/h were recorded through dawn of Wednesday.
Weather experts expected the winds to get better along the west coast before Wednesday's sunrise, but bad weather was expected to prevail along the south coast and inland parts.
"Preliminary advice is this storm will be as significant as Sunday's event and may extend further east into the State," Emergency Services Minister Troy Buswell said early Tuesday.
The Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) told ABC News it answered more than 118 calls for help overnight.
"Certainly a lot of calls in from Mandurah and Rockingham again and in the Bunbury area but mainly of a minor nature," FESA spokesman Allen Gale said, noting that the third storm to hit the state in a week is not as strong as Sunday's weather system.
Perth Storm on Sunday: Record-high 146 km/h
WA emergency services warned the ill weather condition could bring winds up to 125km/h, which carries the same impact as a category 2 cyclone.
In contrast, the Perth storm on Sunday had peaked at 146km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
As forecasted, wind gusts started to power up around 8pm and the storm was felt in Perth's metropolitan area from 9:30pm Tuesday. The strongest gust was felt at Cape Naturaliste at 10.03pm, according to FESA.
Western Power Repairs
In the midst of uncooperative weather conditions since Sunday's storm, Western Power appeals to the public for understanding.
Western Power told the AAP 10,000 homes lost power due to Sunday's storm that brought wind gusts reaching over 140km/h. Twenty-four thousand more homes suffered overnight.
Acting Western Power chief executive Paul Italiano said crews are doing their best to fix the damages, but the repairs may not be completed real soon.
"The extensive nature of damage to the network may take a little while (to repair)... There's about 1700 jobs that we've identified, faults that we need to repair or damage that we need to repair... We'll just have to get through each of those one at a time," he told the Australian media.
Meanwhile, 45 schools in Perth, the South West and Wheatbelt remained closed Wednesday due to the mess left by Sunday's storm.