In areas of eastern Australia, where gales have uprooted trees and cut off power to tens of thousands of homes, authorities declared a natural disaster on Saturday.
Since Wednesday, Sydney and other parts of New South Wales have been hit by torrential rain, lightning, and gusts of up to 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour).
About 30,000 properties were still without electricity on Saturday, down from a peak of over 260,000, due to numerous power lines being downed, according to Jihad Dib, the state’s emergency services minister.
“This is an incident that is affecting the whole state,” he told reporters.
Emergency services had responded to more than 7,000 incidents around New South Wales, he said.
“We know that it has not been an easy thing to go through.”
Disasters had been declared so far in three local government areas, he said, unlocking support for people seeking emergency housing, essential items, repairs and clean-ups.
Electricity network Ausgrid said 140,000 customers had lost power Wednesday and another 68,000 since Friday, with some areas experiencing winds of up to 100 kph.
Police reported that an elderly man was killed in the storms when his car was hit by a tree on Wednesday in Cowra, about 230 kilometres (143 miles) west of Sydney.
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