Penrith SES deal with 240 call outs after storm - Penrith City Gazette

For the second time in a week a storm lashed the Penrith area on Saturday afternoon..

It was raining sideways and strong winds caused damage to buildings and brought down trees.

The worst of the storm initially acted like a very small tornado in the South Penrith region, according to the State Emergency Service (SES) and then also caused damage through St Clair and St Marys.

The Penrith SES branch had over 240 requests for help logged as a result of the storm.

In the western Sydney area there was over 870 call outs in total.

Michael Faccin, the Penrith SES media liaison, said the local branch was supported by Nowra, Lake Macquarie and Shellharbour crews to deal with a high volume of jobs.

‘‘Fire Rescue and other SES crews were the main support,’’ he said.

‘‘There were a few trees down on schools; we know at South Penrith Public school they had quite a bit of damage to their roofs.

‘‘There was a few trees that came down through houses or landed on top of houses.’’

‘‘The bulk of those were in South Penrith.

That was where it was hardest hit.’’

A medical centre in Orchard Hills had part of its roof removed due to the gusting winds, with 10 people inside the building at the time although all were able to escape without injury.

SES crews worked through until Tuesday, stopping each night at around 1am and resuming at 8am the next day, with 50 crew in the field at a time.

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