Hat-trick of fronts hit soaked city for big six

An “unusual” series of three cold fronts struck Bunbury over three consecutive days, causing power outages, flooding and a collapsed ceiling through the city.

A total of 49.8mm of rain was recorded in Bunbury between 9am on Friday and 9am on Monday, with the majority of 35.8mm falling in the 24 hours ending at 9am on Saturday.

Bureau of Meteorlogy duty forecaster Jessica Wilks said the wet weather was part of a series of three cold fronts with the first hitting about 8pm on Friday, followed by two more on Saturday and Sunday night.

Although Ms Wilks said “three consecutive nights might be a little unusual”, it was not an alarming series of events.

Added to the heavy rainfall, gusts of winds reached 65kmh on Saturday night and 70kmh overnight on Monday, causing multiple call-outs for Bunbury’s State Emergency Service and power outages for more than 150 customers.

Bunbury’s SES crews attended three flooding call-outs within 20 minutes on Friday night, including two in East Bunbury at 9.48pm and 10.15pm and in Eaton at 10.04pm.

They were also called out to Australind where a ceiling in one room had collapsed.

A Western Power spokeswoman said a total of 59 customers in Dalyellup lost power at 9.42am on Friday, with all restored by 10.56am and on Sunday, 114 Binningup customers were left without power on Sunday between 9.14am until 11.56am.

Crews worked in the wet conditions to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, the spokeswoman said.

As of 9am on Monday, a total of 112.6mm of rain had fallen this month, just short of the monthly average of 118.6mm.

However, Ms Wilks said the whole monthly average was likely to be reached by the end of today with another half of the month to go.

The rest of the week looks set to be slightly drier.