NSW weather: mini-tornado damages homes in Chester Hill, says NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
ABC News
)Maryanne Tafeuni realised she was witnessing something unusual when the top of a cubby house flew across her backyard on Saturday morning.
Key points:
- Emergency crews were called to the Canterbury-Bankstown suburb at 8:30am
- More than 20 firefighters were in the area assessing properties, with some partially collapsed
- Resident Maryanne Tafeuni told her children to duck for cover
It turns out the storm that caused additional power outages at Chester Hill on Saturday morning — amid the ongoing extreme weather event in NSW — was a "mini-tornado", according to the NSW Premier.
"This morning, as many of you may be aware, at Chester Hill we experienced an unexpected mini-tornado which exacerbated the weather conditions which caused a lot of damage for that region," Gladys Berejiklian said.
Emergency crews were called to the Canterbury-Bankstown suburb at about 8:30am following reports the storm had left a "trail of destruction damaging multiple properties".
NSW Fire and Rescue said more than 20 firefighters were in the area assessing properties, with some partially collapsed.
Ms Tafeuni said the storm was so powerful she felt her house move.
"[For a] split second, as I was looking outside, the house felt like it was literally moving and all I can see from the window is leaves, and things together," she said.
"I thought it was just heavy rain but as soon as I heard the crack of the window at the front I knew it was something else.
"So I had to gather the kids and get down because it was moving. The house was literally moving."
The phenomenon was likely caused by intense localised rainfall, says the Bureau of Meteorology's David Wilkie.
He said their systems picked up strong rotating winds, but the event may not have technically been a tornado.
"Whether or not it reached the kind of threshold you might term a tornado is certainly debatable but … looking at the damage it was obviously some pretty intense wind gusts that passed over the area."
ABC/AAP
Related Stories
Top Stories
Popular Now
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.