A man has been killed by a falling tree during surging storms that have left tens of thousands of people without power.
The 76-year-old died on Wednesday afternoon after being struck by the tree at Glenworth Valley on the NSW Central Coast.
More than 1000 calls for help have been made in NSW alone after wild weather left multiple roofs torn from buildings in the state’s central west.
The town of Nevertire, west of Dubbo, felt some of the worst of the major storms blasting eastern Australia, with lightning causing wall collapses on one property and six others losing their roof.
At least 120,000 homes in NSW are without power after gusts of up to 119 kilometres per hour were felt on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Tens of thousands are also without power in Queensland as two consecutive days of superstorms were declared a catastrophic event.
The damage bill from the storms is expected to surge into the millions, as the Insurance Council of Australia confirmed claims have reached 27,800 and continue to climb.
Crews are working around the clock to repair the damage but almost 29,000 people are still without power, with the worst-affected areas including Moreton Bay, Noosa and the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane.
Brisbane bore the brunt of Tuesday night’s second wave of damage from a storm system stretching as far south as up to 110mm of rain was dumped on some areas.
Large parts of Queensland also continue to swelter under heatwave conditions, with temperatures six to 10 degrees above the November average.
By 3.30pm on Wednesday, 1145 calls for help had been made to the NSW State Emergency Service, with 622 in metropolitan Sydney alone.
“These incidents relate mainly to trees down, taking down power lines and also damaging roofs,” NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Sean Kearns said.
“We’re asking people as they leave work this afternoon to avoid any unnecessary travel and to drive to the conditions.”
Paramedics and SES workers also worked to free a man in his twenties with head and leg injuries after a tree collapsed on him at a park in Ophir, north of Orange, also in central-west NSW.
Humidity combined with warm temperatures and troughs to produce storms right across the east coast with the threat of further storms lingering.
“There’s also a risk of high-end storms bringing giant-sized hail and destructive gusts,” bureau meteorologist Sarah Scully said.
Meanwhile, a cold front moving across southern areas of the country is expected to trigger stormy conditions and damaging winds across parts of South Australia and Victoria.
“That’s catching the southeastern parts of South Australia, possibly reaching some of those southern Adelaide suburbs and then pushing across most of Victoria, including Melbourne,” Ms Scully said
Ex-tropical cyclone Fina was downgraded overnight and is impacting the northern parts of Western Australia’s Kimberley region with heavy rainfall and the risk of flash flooding.
“We’re going to continue to see the impact of this ex-tropical cyclone over the next day or two, even though it’s lost that cyclonic category,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury said.
The clean-up continues in the Northern Territory after Fina felled trees, caused power outages and damaged buildings as it swept through on the weekend as a category three system.
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