Sydneysiders have flooded social media with photos and videos of last night’s horrific storm, which is thought to have resulted in one death and left thousands of people across NSW without power.
Pictures and footage from across the city show lightning snaking across the sky, with torrential downpours felt in the city centre and as far afield as the Hunter Valley and Wollongong.
Here are some quick shots I took of this storm.#sydneystorm #sydneyweather pic.twitter.com/bBtSGr2v4F
— basith (@baesith) February 18, 2020
There’s a weird near-silent lightening storm wrapping 270 degrees around my house but no storm overhead… It’s spooky #sydney pic.twitter.com/zHegB6NdTD
— Tom Dawkins (@tomjd) February 18, 2020
Journo Brendan Bradford even captured this knuckle-tensing footage of a commercial flight navigating the downpours.
A plane flying through the lightning storm. The world’s hardest of hard passes for me… #SydneyStorm #Lightning pic.twitter.com/ICrKpHgAPa
— Brendan Bradford (@1bbradfo) February 18, 2020
One man is thought to have died in Sydney as a result of the storm, with the NSW Ambulance Service calling his death the result of a “one-in-a-million” gas bottle accident.
NSW Police state the 37-year-old man was walking through Harrington Street in The Rocks around midnight last night when the incident occurred.
“During the storm it appears a gas bottle became airborne and struck the man causing severe injuries,” police state.
Bystanders reportedly attended to the man before police rushed him to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Speaking to the ABC, NSW Ambulance Superintendent Kath Rallings said the incident seemed to be a “freak accident” caused by last night’s extreme weather.
Police have established a crime scene and have urged anyone with footage of the incident to step forward.
The NSW State Emergency Service reportedly received just over 900 callouts as a result of the storms, while energy provider Ausgrid states power outages impacted as many as 80,000 people across the state.
Ausgrid said it is too early to observe the full extent of the damage, but advised residents to stay clear of fallen powerlines while repair efforts continue.
80,000 customers lost power in last night’s severe lightning storms.
We have safely restored power to more than 50,000 customers overnight.
We are working to restore less than 30,000 and the majority of those customers can expect to have power on today.
📸 by @annagoesbang pic.twitter.com/hLvBENLZYl
— Ausgrid (@Ausgrid) February 18, 2020
The Bureau of Meteorology states conditions are slated to clear in Sydney as the day wears on.
