Albany receives a holiday weekend battering as wind gusts reach 69km/h at the airport and rain soaks Denmark

The Great Southern received another battering over the holiday weekend with wild wind and rain causing havoc across the region.

A large tree toppled over into Albany’s North Road, and the Middleton Beach pontoon was smashed out of its mooring during the large swell.

Luckily, the other damage wreaked by the storm was only minor and included leaky roofs, a broken window, a fence coming down and a shed flipping over at a local sports ground.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services issued an alert overnight on Saturday advising that thunderstorms were coming to Albany, Bremer Bay and the Denmark and Walpole area.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, gusts of wind reached 69km/h at Albany Airport between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

It was also a wet night, with the airport receiving 24.2mm of rainfall while the Albany CBD received 18.2mm.

Denmark was the wettest place to be over the weekend, recording 64.6mm of rainfall.

A DFES spokesperson said units across the Great Southern attended five incidents connected to the storm, all of which were for water ingress or roof leaks.

Albany SES team manager Ben Whittle said his crews had attended three incidents, the most serious of which was a window blowing out at a Goode Beach property.

The DFES alert was reduced at 4am on Sunday but said people should be “aware of potential hazards that remain after the storm has passed”.

The alert said that 48mm of rainfall had been recorded at Bremer Bay in less than three hours up to 11.30pm on Saturday.

No roads were closed.

A BOM spokesperson said the weather was due to a cut-off low pressure system which led to stormy winds and thunderstorms.

“We launched a string of warnings for damaging winds and gales for coastal areas,” they said.

“There was also an atypical swell, south-easterly rather then south-westerly, which was likely responsible for the Middleton Beach pontoon jettisoning its moorings.”

A shed at North Albany Football Club was flipped over in the wind on Saturday night.

Club president Brodie Sumich said the Collingwood Park ground was empty at the time.

“It has been there for years, but we only ever use it when we host a grand final,” he said.

“It must have been quite a gust of just the right wind to get up the hill and underneath it.

“There was nobody at the club, but my phone was going from 6am with people who were walking past with their dogs telling me it had flipped.”

He said his next task was to work out if it was club property or was the responsibility of the City of Albany which maintains the oval.

In North Road, the tree had been removed from the road by Monday morning with the branches left on the median strip and verges.