Power outage affects almost 1500 homes after Canberra thunderstorm, hail

Evoenergy reported outages were affecting customers in Aranda, Belconnen, Canberra Central, Cook, Denman, Denman Prospect, Molonglo, Molonglo Valley, Stromlo and Whitlam about 7am on Sunday.

"Our crews are working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible," it said in a Tweet.

Emergency services had responded to almost 70 calls for assistance after a severe thunderstorm hit parts of Canberra and Queanbeyan on Saturday night.

Hail was reported at Kingston, Pearce, Kippax, and Kambah while other suburbs were hit with brief heavy rain.

On Sunday morning, a severe weather warning remained in place for damaging winds.

The community has been asked to stay vigilant, storm activity is possible again up until Sunday afternoon.

As of 7.40am on Sunday morning, 22.4 millimetres of rain had been recorded for Canberra since 9am the day prior.

An Emergency Services Agency spokesperson said the storm had a "significant impact" on the ACT.

Several Canberrans moved their vehicles under bridges and overpasses when hail struck, keen to avoid a repeat of any hail damage as the events of January 2020 when golf-ball sized hailstones wreaked havoc across the territory.

A number of SES crews with the assistance of fire and rescue were out attending to multiple incidents across the territory on Saturday evening.

"Strong winds have caused several trees to fall in Canberra's suburbs, blocking roads and damaging power lines and properties," a spokesperson said.

"An 89km/h wind gust was observed at Canberra Airport at 6.39pm. Keep at least eight metres away from fallen power lines or objects that could be energised."

On Saturday night, 767 people in Canberra were without power in parts of Campbell, Curtin, Weston Creek and Yarralumla.

An EvoEnergy spokesperson said they had received multiple reports of trees and branches falling onto power lines as a result of the storm.

"There is a current outage affecting around 765 customers in parts of Curtin, Weston Creek and Yarralumla. Current restoration time is around 10pm depending on the severity of the damage," they said.

"We have received reports of trees on lines in Weetangera, Forrest, Cook, Macquarie, Red Hill, Yarralumla and Kambah and we are aware of outages affecting single premises in these areas.

"Our crews are working quickly and safely to restore power to those affected, thank you for patience Canberra."

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Showers are expected to continue on Sunday with a chance of another severe thunderstorm in the morning and afternoon. The day is expected to hit a top of 28 degrees after a sunny Saturday morning brought Canberrans out to celebrate the warm weather and clear skies.

For assistance in a storm or flood call the ACTSES on 132 500, in a life-threatening emergency call Triple Zero (000).

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