UPDATED 4.30pm Thursday:

Gunnedah SES says the unit has responded to at least 11 calls for assistance in the last 24 hours.

This included seven requests overnight Wednesday and a further four on Thursday morning.

SES unit commander Phill Miegel said the responses were “mainly for trees down”, either impacting property or blocking roads.

Mr Miegel said overall damage to property in the Gunnedah area was minimal.

About 15 members were on hand to respond to call-outs which fortunately coincided with the unit’s regular Wednesday night training activity.

EARLIER, 12pm:

Emergency crews were kept busy across the Gunnedah region last night after wild winds brought down trees and powerlines across town.

Wind gusts up to 80kmh were recorded at Gunnedah Airport about 7pm Wednesday.

This was followed by a sudden rain downpour which dumped 7mm in one 15-minute period.

State Emergency Service volunteer Kevin Smith was responding to a call-out overnight when a large tree branch fell and narrowly missed his George Street home.

“The top half of the tree broke off,” he said.

“I was on a job at the time.”

Fortunately, only one branch of the large tree limb glanced the roof.

At Curlewis, carport roofs were ripped from their fixtures, meanwhile fallen powerlines were reported at Carlyon Avenue and Elgin Street in Gunnedah.

Gunnedah Fire and Rescue attended the Elgin Street incident about 7.30pm last night and said the crews made the area safe.

A powerpole was also reported alight at Bloomfield Street, Gunnedah. Essential Energy said this incident to “damaged equipment” was reported at 8.30pm.

As of 12pm Thursday, an unplanned power interruption was still affecting 79 customers in the Bloomfield Street area.

Last night trees were also reported on the highway near Coonabarabran, meanwhile a fire near Goolhi Road was flagged on the Hazards Near Me app.

Earlier this morning SES crews attended a Conadilly Street motel where a small roof fixture had been blown off the wind.

Motel operator, Sandra, said the strength of the wind in Gunnedah caught them by surprise.

“It was really windy for about 15-20 minutes,” she said.

“We had part of the roof fly off and land in the carpark.

“We knew it was going to rain but there was a lot more wind than we expected.”

Elsewhere across the region, Tamworth Airport recorded just 7mm of rain in 24 hours to 9am Thursday but was spared the worst of the wind gusts.

Quirindi picked up 18mm of rain, Coonabarabran 3.4mm but Moree just 0.2mm over the same time period.

Friday’s forecast for the North West Slopes and Plains area, which includes Gunnedah, is a partly cloudy day with high chance of showers on the southern slopes, slight chance elsewhere. Winds southerly 25 to 40 km/h. Overnight temperatures falling to between 12 and 17 with daytime temperatures reaching 20 to 32.

 

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