Nine people have been rescued from floodwaters and more than 40,000 properties left without power after intense thunderstorms crossed Sydney and surrounding areas.
The short but sharp storms on Friday evening caused flash flooding in several areas, including Parramatta where intersections became lakes and several drivers needed the SES to help get them out of their cars.
Guildford copped 61 millimetres of rain, including 47mm in just 30 minutes while Sydney Olympic Park received 40mm in the 40 minutes to 7pm.
Elsewhere, 50mm fell at West Pennant Hills, 40mm at Peakhurst and 36mm at Chatswood.
The SES had 589 jobs on its books by 9.30pm, mainly for leaky roofs and trees down.
Almost 500 of those were for the Sydney metro area, including 157 in Parramatta and neighbouring suburbs.
Endeavour Energy warned the damage was so extensive that some of the 27,800 homes in western Sydney without power wouldn't have it restored until Saturday morning.
Some 250 electrical hazards had been reported since the storm hit, a spokesman said.
"Emergency crews are patrolling affected areas to make safe and switch around damaged parts of the network to safely restore power supply to as many customers as possible."
Ausgrid said about 15,200 customers lost power in the city's east and north.
About 2400 had power restored by 10pm.
A severe thunderstorm warning for heavy rain, damaging winds and large hailstones remains in place for the Hunter but has been lifted for Sydney and Wollongong.
The power issues also affected the start of the AFLW match between GWS Giants and North Melbourne when two light towers at Drummoyne went out before the game's scheduled start of 7.15pm.
The match, which got underway about 8pm, was further delayed when three light towers lost power during the second quarter.
Australian Associated Press
