Great Southern hit with damaging storms and heavy rain on Sunday and Monday, taking down trees

Great Southern residents braced for wild weather on Sunday evening and Monday morning as the Bureau of Meteorology advised that a severe storm was to descend on the region.

The Department of Fire and Emergency issued an alert for Albany, Hopetoun and Bremer Bay on Sunday, July 27, urging people to prepare for damaging winds and heavy rain that were expected to continue until Monday evening.

Gusts of west to south-westerly winds reached speeds of 57km/h at 10.30pm on Sunday and peaked at 72km/h on Monday morning in Albany with 21.6mm of rainfall measured by 9am.

Power briefly went out in Mt Clarence when a fallen tree knocked down power lines on Serpentine East Road and City of Albany workers had to cut a fallen tree that had blocked La Perouse Road in Goode Beach.

Albany State Emergency Service manager Ben Whittle said the service was thankfully not required during Sunday’s storm but said the SES had responded to two incidents of water ingress on July 24 after heavy rain.

He urged residents to take small precautions in preparation for future weather events.

“It is tricky to know how these things will go, where water might come in but cleaning your gutters regularly, tying things down,” he said.

“Thinking of the little things you can do beforehand does make a difference during a storm.”

DFES had reduced the storm threat level by 10.39pm on Monday.