Thousands remain without power as NSW faces huge storm clean up

Wednesday, 26 November 2025 14:53

About 50,000 NSW homes and businesses remain without power today after wild weather tore through parts of the state, killing one man.

Large parts of NSW face a huge clean-up today with about 50,000 homes and businesses without power after a wild weather tore through, killing one man.

The SES is continuing to respond to storm damage and has responded to more than 2,260 calls for help from the community.

An intense weather system bringing damaging winds above 100km/h and heavy rainfall moved from the Central West of NSW yesterday across to the east coast, causing significant damage to properties, homes and infrastructure.

More than 800 SES volunteers helped communities in the Central West, Hunter, North Coast, Illawarra and across Sydney impacted by the wild weather.

The busiest NSW SES Unit in the state was in the western Sydney suburb of Blacktown, with more than 350 storm-related jobs called in.

At Orange, crews responded to about 170 incidents yesterday.

Entire roofs were blown off properties at Nevertire, west of Dubbo,, including private homes and sheds. The damage is expected to take several days to clean up.

A large number of trees were brought down in Sydney, Western NSW and the Central Coast, including onto trees, homes and roads.

While storm activity is expected to ease across the state today, the SES is urging people to remain vigilant and stay across Hazards Near Me for any warning or information on floods and storms.

Man killed on NSW Central Coast

A 76-year-old man was hit by a falling tree at a home on Glenworth Valley Road on the Central Coast and was unable to be revived by emergency workers who were called to the scene about 1.30pm yesterday.

About 1pm, emergency crews also responded to a large gum tree falling onto a house on Kurrajong Road at North St Marys, where a woman and her baby were inside.

There were no injuries, and they were taken to Nepean Hospital for mandatory testing.

"She was just very shaken up, she was just thankful that we were there to put her in the car," a witness told 9News.

A 35-year-old man had to be cut free after being trapped under a branch while camping in Orange.

A car roof was flattened by a falling tree at Cambridge Park in western Sydney but no one was injured.

The main street of Kurri Kurri, north-west of Newcastle, was left looking like a disaster zone.

Heatwave continues for parts of NSW

The Bureau of Meteorology says its extreme heatwave warning for the Mid North Coast will continue until the weekend.

The Northern Rivers, Northern Tablelands and Upper Western districts remain under severe heatwave warnings.

"Severe heatwave conditions are expected to ease over the Upper Western district during over the next few days, and over northeast parts of the state later this week or over the weekend.

"Locations likely to be impacted include Bourke, Ballina, Byron Bay, Dorrigo, Grafton, Lismore, Murwillumbah, Taree and Yamba."

The bureau says extreme fire danger is forecast today for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region, Central Ranges and North Western fire districts.

People are being urged to stay indoors due to severe weather conditions.

Commuters urged to watch for updates

The rail system also struggled yesterday, with major impacts on the North Shore, Western and Blue Mountains lines.

Long lines and huge crowds of commuters formed as trains were halted between Parramatta, Richmond and St Mary's after the power supply was knocked out at various locations.

Transport for NSW brought in replacement buses but the delays continued well into the night.

Today, rail commuters are being urged to keep an eye out for warnings about impacted services.

Widespread power outages

Power outages remained overnight, with many residents warned the lights wouldn't be coming back on until today.

The latest update from Essential Energy, at 6am today, showed 11,000 homes and businesses across regional NSW without power cross the Central West, North West, New England, Central Tablelands, South Coast Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast.

A spokesperson said crews will work through today to restore services.

"Due to a total fire ban set by fire authorities, crews must fully inspect the powerlines before restoring power for bushfire prevention.

"Helicopters were used in some areas to patrol the powerlines late yesterday to help speed up this process. This takes extra time, so please prepare for potential extended power outages."

At 7am today, Endeavour Energy had 32,000 customers without power.

The company said it had cancelled all planned maintenance today and will relocate crews from the NSW South Coast to support its major repair efforts across many Western Sydney suburbs.

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