Sydney smashed by wind chaos: 100km/h gusts send branches into pedestrians and houses, ground flights and leave 20,000 homes without power
Gale force winds have ripped through Sydney on Friday tearing roofs off buildings, sending trees into pedestrians and houses, and causing transport chaos.
Two people have been hospitalised after a large tree fell on them in Hyde Park in the centre of the city while and tens of thousands of homes remain without power after electricity lines were brought down in the gale force winds.
Other large trees fell in West Pymble, smashing into a house and uprooting a gas line, in Bondi, and in Balmain where it destroyed a fortunately empty parked car.
Nearby at Dick’s pub in Balmain, emergency crews had to be called when a canvas roof over the beer garden was blown in.
In the Inner West suburb of Drummoyne, a large section of metal roof was blown into the centre of a busy road, landing on car and halting traffic, while rail commuters battled delays after tree branches fell across the tracks in St Peters.
At Sydney Airport, passengers ‘white-knuckled it’ through some landings and some flights were delayed but all runways remained opened despite the crosswinds until Friday night when seawater swells forced one runway to close.
The south-easterly winds grew stronger throughout the afternoon with gusts of 119km/h recorded at Wattamolla in the city’s south, 104km/h at Port Botany and wind speeds above 90km/h at the airport and on Sydney Harbour.
Passengers are urged to contact their airlines directly to confirm any delays or cancellations of their flights.
The NSW SES said it had received hundreds of calls for assistance after gale force winds caused havoc across Sydney on Friday – with a cleanup effort to last the weekend
In Drummoyne a section of roof was blown onto the road, taking out a car and halting traffic
A number of homes across the city were damaged after winds reached more than 100km/h in some areas
Electricity provider AusGrid had just restored power to 120,000 homes in Sydney’s north after severe storms on Wednesday when they had to pivot to the wind-caused outages.
More than 20,000 homes across the city remain without power on Friday night.
Crews will continue to clean up the damage and restore power throughout the weekend.
Sheet roofing was also blown into the stands at the SCG amid wild winds that blew across the ground before the Sydney Sixers’ Big Bash League clash with the Sydney Thunder.
Security guards evacuated fans from a bay in the Bill O’Reilly Stand around 6:30pm on Friday night when roof sheeting began to flap precariously directly above.
The sheeting fell from the underside of the stand but did not hit anyone, with applause ringing out from those that had remained nearby.
The bay remained empty afterwards as security kept watch on the area.
The incident came only one night after a small fire broke out at the Gabba during Thursday night’s game between the Brisbane Heat and Hobart Hurricanes, which briefly came to a halt.
Pitch covers are blown off by strong winds as the match is halted due to rain during the BBL match between Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder at Sydney Cricket Ground. A section of the roof of the stand was also blown off
Trains were delayed in St Peters after a tree fell on the tracks
Thrillseekers on the Manly ferry on Sydney Harbour stood outside as huge swells battered the boat
About 20,000 homes remain without power on Friday night
The two injured women, aged 35 and 66-years-old ,who were hit when a massive tree fell in Hyde Park in Sydney’s CBD were both taken to St Vincent’s Hospital to get treatment for minor injuries.
Emergency services raced to the scene about 3.05pm on Friday after the tree fell onto the road at the Elizabeth Street side of the park to reports people were underneath.
City of Sydney officials insist the trees had been inspected as part of routine public safety practices as recently as July, adding they would do so again once the weather cleared.
The first police officers on the scene frantically combed through a sea of branches and foliage to determine if anyone had become trapped.
Emergency services said no one appeared to have been seriously injured in the incident.
The tree, on the park’s edge near St James station, appeared to have split in two before crashing across the nearby footpath.
Two woman were injured after a tree was blown over in Hyde Park in the CBD
The massive tree was snapped in half by the winds
Both woman were taken to St Vincent’s hospital for minor injuries
Two people were hit by the branches and knocked to the ground while onlookers ran to their aid, according to one witness.
The man, who identified himself as Chris, said he was walking along Elizabeth Street when he heard the crack of the tree and saw it crash onto a woman.
‘There was a gust of wind and the tree has just fallen,’ he told AAP.
‘A lady was in the middle of it. If she had been a few metres back or a few metres forward it would have ended a lot worse.
‘But she walked away with a couple of scratches, so she got really lucky. It’s such a high traffic area but everyone got away, luckily.’
At least three ambulance crews were among emergency services at the scene, where police diverted traffic as the tree blocked two lanes of southbound traffic.
Images of the cleanup process captured roughly half a dozen emergency workers racing to clean up the mess of the tree after the two women were rescued.
Sydney was still being lashed with rain on Friday after a week of wild storms and more showers and wind are forecast for the Harbour City on Saturday before skies are expected to clear on Sunday with temperatures reaching just 23C.
Damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall smashed not only Sydney in recent days but also the Hunter, the Mid North Coast, Illawarra, Central Tablelands, North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands districts.
One man in the NSW Central West town of Cowra was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle and more than 200,000 homes across Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong were left without power on Wednesday due to lightning strikes.
Up to 73,700 strikes were detected within 100km of the CBD on Wednesday, according to Weatherzone. A total of 1.8million lightning strikes were detected in an arc from Queensland to Tasmania across 24 hours.
