Up to 100mm of rain is forecast for the Adelaide Hills, with the storm expected to hit at about midday on Wednesday. Winds should average 90km/h, whipping up ocean waves to more than 10 metres, but gusts are forecast to be much stronger.
The State Emergency Service says 43,000 sandbags have been distributed and more are to be handed out on Wednesday. SA Power Networks says there will probably be power outages and some could be long.
State cabinet’s emergency management council was also meeting to consider what action would be required as the storm hit and during the cleanup.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the state’s west coast and large parts of the Eyre peninsula and that warning was expected to move east during the day. A flood watch was also in place for the Adelaide Hills.
“This depth of the low, this close to the coast, is very damaging,” said the Bureau of Metereology SA’s director, John Nairn. “It’s a very significant event for South Australia. It’s very rare.”
Nairn said records suggested SA had not experienced a storm so severe for more than 50 years.
South Australia braces for storm that could be most severe in 50 years
28 September 2016
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South Australians are preparing for one of the most extreme weather systems to hit the state in decades, bringing drenching rain and damaging winds.
