By Holly Thompson, 20 February 2025, from the WA Today website.
Thousands of residents and
businesses in the Perth Hills are still without power, more than 17 hours after
a freak storm tore through the area on Wednesday.
The storm, which brought strong
wind, hail and heavy rainfall to the area, uprooted trees and ripped roofs from
homes hit the area around 6pm Wednesday and was described by those who saw it
as a ‘mini tornado’ lasting several minutes. Emergency crews received over 60
calls for assistance in the hours that followed.
Residents in Parkville, Mount
Helena, Mundaring, Stoneville, Sawyers Valley and Gigegannup remain the most
affected areas for power outages, with an estimated restorations time across
the network of 8pm Thursday at the earliest.
Western Power said 12,200 homes
in total had lost power, with destructive winds damaging equipment and bringing
down powerlines.
Wind gusts associated with storms
in the region reached 70 to 90km/h, but it is likely that localised wind gusts
were stronger, the Bureau of Meteorology reported.
“These thunderstorms were driven
by a combination of high daytime temperatures, reaching the mid-to-high 30s,
and lingering tropical moisture left behind by the remnants of Ex-Tropical
Cyclone Zelia,” the agency said.
Amaroo Retreat, in Mount Helena,
was one business impacted by the storm. Owner Kirstin Westerman told Radio 6PR
the weather had changed rapidly.
“I think best described as a
tornado, it just came on out of the blue, went from blue sky to black, intense
wind with hail, and the devastation was catastrophic for us unfortunately and
our surrounding neighbours,” she said.
“Our restaurant and kitchen, two
chalets, our shed, a pool, our water tank has been flattened. We have
significant damage and will be closed for a considerable amount of time I
think.”
Westerman said she had run up to
the restaurant from her home on the property as the storm hit to check on the
guests who had been staying, entering the building right as a tree crashed down
onto it.
She said it was “extremely lucky”
no one was hurt.
Possum Valley Animal Sanctuary
owner Mark Hayman said they had lost a number of fences, with trees falling
across them, and some water tanks had been destroyed.
None of the 320 animals living at
the property were harmed.
“We have quite a dedicated team
of volunteers so … we had eight or so that came up just to help us do some
assessment and make sure everybody was secure back in their shelters and
paddocks and quickly do some repairs to some fences and clear some trees off
the main road so people could get in and out,” he said.
“We were able to get some sleep
last night, comfortable knowing that everybody was safe and secure.”
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster
Johnathon Howe said residents were faced with significant damage.
“We did have reports of tornados
and tornado-like damage across the region, so the Bureau staff will be doing a
full assessment today looking at the radar as well as doing a damage assessment
to determine whether or not it was a tornado,” he said.
“The highest wind gust we did see
at observation stations were between 80 to 90 kilometres per hour, but it is
likely that in these localised areas those wind speeds were much greater than
that to cause this damage.”
Department of Fire and Emergency
Services metropolitan operations assistant commissioner Danny Mosconi said it
was “quite an unusual event.”
“My understanding is these types
of events happen about five times a year across the southwest land division,”
he said.
“We might not have had the
rotation type of movement that a tornado has, but certainly unusual event.”
