Thousands still without power in South Australia, days after wild storms

Nearly 12,000 South Australians are still without power, four days after a wild storm lashed the state – and it could stay that way for some time as solar and wind farms are “turned off” to protect the overwhelmed grid.

Residents and businesses in Adelaide’s south-east, the Adelaide Hills, Coromandel Valley, Hawthorndene and Upper Sturt are facing their fourth day in the dark, as more interstate crews arrive to repair the state’s badly damaged power network.

ElectraNet CEO Simon Emms says the state’s interconnector to Victoria isn’t expected to be back up and running until the end of the weekend, after a tower was toppled near Tailem Bend.

The storm toppled a transmission tower just outside Tailem Bend, south-east of Adelaide. (ElectraNet)

“The tower is approximately 30-40 years old, they’re about 50 metres tall and it obviously takes a very localised, severe event to cause that sort of damage to such a significant piece of infrastructure,” he said, flagging solar and wind farms will likely be turned off to protect the power grid ahead of sunny conditions Thursday.

“On Thursday, we’ll work with the Australian Energy Market Operator and SA Power Networks.

“The first step, they’ll turn off wind farms and commercial solar farms to hopefully minimise the impact on the rooftop solar.”

Falling trees, lightning strikes and high winds resulted in widespread outages and has caused extensive damage to the power network. (SA Power Networks)

Close to 20 schools have been closed as the power fallout continues, disrupting SACE exams.

One school was unable to conduct a chemistry exam yesterday and around 90 students sitting psychology and Japanese exams will be affected today.

The insurance industry is also dealing with hundreds of claims for damaged property.

The wind was so strong it ripped thick trees from their foundations. — The wind was so strong it ripped thick trees from their roots. (SA Infrastructure & Transport)

It’s expected the damage bill will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The storms hit Adelaide and the state’s south on Saturday and were some of the strongest in recent memory.

Nearly half a million lightning strikes illuminated the skies, as wind gusts in excess of 100km/h brought down huge trees and heavy rain caused flash flooding.

South Australians have snapped a spectacular spring lightning show. — Nearly half a million lightning bolts danced across the sky as the storms bore down. (9News)

The squall line caused air to rapidly rise and fall producing wind and rain rates "similar to those in a low grade tropical cyclone". — The squall line caused air to rapidly rise and fall producing wind and rain rates “similar to those in a low grade tropical cyclone”. (Weatherzone)

Weatherzone explained a “combination of an unstable atmosphere and a surface trough” allowed an “explosive” squall line to form.

“A squall line is essentially a long, well ‘organised’ line of thunderstorms in a narrow, slightly curved band,” the weather service said.

“Saturday’s squall line stretched from SA’s North West Pastoral forecast district all the way down to the Lower South East forecast district, before it swept onwards to the Victorian border.”