Upstairs, water was pooling inside light fittings and the sky shone through the skylights in the home they bought three years ago.
“It’s not safe upstairs,” Chen said.
Across the alleyway, neighbour Josh Yeo was surveying the damage to his own home. The Chens’ roof flew into his upstairs windows, shattering five floor-to-ceiling panes of glass.
On Thursday morning, a large roofing sheet hung over the top of the fence in his courtyard.
“I was just downstairs when I heard this enormous bang,” Yeo told the Herald.
When he walked into an upstairs bedroom, the floor was covered in glass.
Another roofing panel, around 15 metres long, had flown over the roof of his two-storey duplex, landing in the communal yard area behind his unit.
“It’s lucky nobody was hurt,” he said.
More properties were also damaged in Carlingford, forcing 14 people in total to seek emergency accommodation.
Storm alert
Further rain and potential thunderstorms have the State Emergency Service (SES) on alert. Severe storms combined with a low-pressure weather system are expected to bring rain from Thursday through to Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology warns.
NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing said there was potential for “significant storms” anywhere north of Newcastle, with rainfall between 50 and 80 millimetres expected, and up to 200 millimetres in some areas. The rain is forecast to peak on Friday.
He warned holidaymakers, particularly those camping, to move away from rivers.
“We’re not out of the woods yet. We still have a storm trunk coming through [and] there is potential for significant storms,” he said.
Wassing said 800 SES volunteers had cleared around half of the 2500 incidents reported overnight.
“It’s been a tremendous effort,” he said.
A driver believed to have been in his 80s died on Wednesday evening after a tree fell on his vehicle in Cowra in the state’s Central West. Emergency services were called to Lachlan Valley Way and found the man dead at the scene. He has not yet been formally identified.
Four others were injured in Bomen, near Wagga Wagga, after high winds flipped demountable huts, while a person in Castle Hill was trapped in their car by a fallen tree.
A house also burnt down in Mudgee, in the Central West, after the storm downed a power line. No one was injured in the home.
Crown Casino tower in Barangaroo was struck by lightning, with videos shared on social media showing water leaking from the venue’s roof. The casino also experienced a power outage.
One visitor said the power outage lasted from 8.45pm until just after midnight.
“The staircase turned into a waterfall,” he said, adding nearby luxury apartments at One Sydney Harbour were also affected by outages.
“Wild that an expensive 2024 skyscraper would [be affected like this].”
The storms caused more than 200,000 power outages, with 140,000 among Ausgrid customers, 29,000 with Essential Energy and nearly 32,000 with Endeavour.
Just over 100,000 people were still without power across the state as of late Thursday morning, including 87,000 across central and northern Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle, 25,600 in western Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra and South Coast, and 15,600 in regional NSW.
Ausgrid customers reported more than 560 electrical hazards. The energy provider said the storm was the biggest to hit Sydney in several years, and emergency crews are working to clear debris and deal with hazards. However, it warned some customers would remain without power until Friday “at the earliest”.
Premier Chris Minns apologised to those still without power.
“This was a massive storm front. We genuinely appreciate all of the crews working overtime and who have come in [from] leave to get houses and communities connected back to the grid,” he said.
Minns added industrial action by the rail unions had left people “scrambling” to get home in the face of the storm.
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Multiple stations, including Lidcombe and Cabramatta, suffered power cuts, Town Hall station concourse flooded, and trees damaged overhead wires at Normanhurst and Bell.
The SES has warned people camping near rivers and creeks on the Central Coast, Mid North Coast and North Coast to prepare for severe weather.
The bureau has also issued a coastal hazard warning for damaging surf in parts of Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan and Illawarra forecast districts.
A flood watch has been issued for the Orara, Coffs Coast, Bellinger and Kalang River catchments, Manning and Gloucester, Myall River, Karuah River, Wollombi Brook and Lower Hunter, and Paterson and Williams River, with minor flooding possible.
A severe thunderstorm warning was cancelled for people in the Mid North Coast, Hunter, North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands forecast districts earlier this morning.
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