SES mop-up as NSW weather eases

STATE Emergency Service crews across NSW are mopping up after a savage windstorm battered the state's south coast over the weekend, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, toppling trees and stripping roofs over a wide area.

Gale-force winds swept across the region in the early hours of Father's Day, inflicting most damage along the Illawarra-south coast area.

SES NSW spokeswoman Erin Pogmore said the service had taken more than 2500 distress calls from across NSW from Saturday until Sunday night, with 1500 calls from the Illawarra and the south coast.

Ms Pogmore said crews would spend the night catching up on the many jobs still outstanding.

"The Bureau (of Meteorology has cancelled its severe weather warnings, which is a relief for all our crews," she said.

"We still have flood warnings in place but it's more a matter of monitoring flood levels now."

Trees collapsing on powerlines caused widespread damage to the electricity network.

Integral Energy said a total of 86,000 customers suffered interrupted supply throughout the day, while 25,000 South Coast customers were expected to be without power overnight.

"We're advising customers in the Shoalhaven area to prepare for the possibility they could be without power for up to the next 48 hours," Integral Energy's group network manager Rod Howard said.

"Before our crews can replace power poles and fallen wires they first have to remove large trees, and this will substantially delay restoration times," he said.

The company says it has given top priority to assisting Nowra and Ulladulla hospitals to connect to emergency generators.

It said electricity was interrupted to homes and businesses from Wollongong in the north and south to the Shoalhaven, with relatively little damage reported to Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

Country Energy joined forces with Integral to rush in generators on Sunday after power supplies to around 20,000 of its South Coast customers were interrupted.

The weather situation across the state had eased by Sunday night.

But minor flood warnings were in place for a host of rivers including the Macquarie, Murrumbidgee, Belubula and Castlereagh Rivers and minor to moderate flooding on parts of the Murray River.