Perth has been battered by wild storms overnight, recording winds up to 100km/h as flooding shuts down Riverside Drive and debris blankets roads across the metropolitan area.

About 70,000 homes are without power on Monday morning after the powerful storm hit a major part of the State.

Early alerts indicate services could take until Monday night to be restored.

There are several reports that the destructive winds, which got up to 130km/h in the South West, removed shed roofs and sent sections of fencing flying across various suburbs.

Damaging winds and surf, plus abnormally high tides will continue to thrash southern parts of WA throughout Monday, with sustained winds of up to 70km/h and gusts of 100km/h expected.

Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist Ilana Cherny said the storms was the result of an “unusually deep low pressure system, the likes of which we haven’t seen for quite a few years”.

Pressure lines on a map so close together as they have been over in the past 24 hours indicated there was a “very tight pressure gradient”.

“That is what has driven the rarely experienced widespread damaging to destructive winds through South West Western Australia over the past 24 hours,” Ms Cherny said.

Southern parts of the State recorded the strongest wind, with 135km/h recorded at Cape Naturaliste, 133km/h at Cape Leeuwin and 120km/h at Busselton Sunday evening.

Strong wind of more than 90km/h in Perth saw a huge white gum tree fell on a house in Peppermint Grove, in Perth’s western suburbs, and a resident in Willetton told 6PR on Monday morning that a huge tree narrowly missed her house and volunteer SES workers spent hours removing it.

Among the damage was a light pole that fell over on Duncraig Road in Applecross about 6.30pm on Sunday, roofing torn from a Gosnells home and a power line that fell at the corner of Kadina and Charles Street in North Perth.

In Mandurah, wind blew a garden shed into a neighbour’s swimming pool.

More than 700 calls were made for help, including 500 from the Perth metro area, Matt Folini from DFES said.

He said the volume of calls was abnormally high for this time of year, and suspected the storm would be one of the more significant weather events for the year.

There have been no significant injuries and drivers have avoided entering flooding areas, he said.

Flooding has shut down part of Stirling Highway in North Fremantle heading southbound after McCabe Street, with drivers warned to drive with extreme caution Monday as fallen branches remain strewn across multiple main roads.

While a severe weather warning was in place for Perth, and many digital traffic screens continue to display the warning, it has been cancelled.

Widespread warnings for abnormally high tides with up to eight metre swell and damaging surf remain in place Monday for Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury, Geraldton, Margaret River, Esperance and Albany.

DFES early on Monday issued widespread alerts for people in parts of the Perth metro area, including Cottesloe, and parts of the Midwest, Gascoyne, Goldfields, Midland, South West and Great Southern.

The current alert is to stay away from damaged buildings and other hazards while crews assess storm damage across affected areas.

“Emergency services are receiving a high volume of requests for assistance and are prioritising jobs based on risk to life and safety,” the warning stated.

“People in affected areas should stay away from damaged buildings, fallen trees, fallen power lines and storm debris.”

A Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Monday morning described the storm “one of the significant fronts of the year”.

He said while the worst had likely passed, conditions including winds over 120km/h, made it one of a small handful of major systems that hit each year.

Perth Airport also suffered major disruptions, including an Air New Zealand that aborted its takeoff due to extreme crosswind.

While several flights made multiple attempts before successfully landing, other flights due to land in Perth had to be diverted to Kalgoorlie.

A Scoot flight from Singapore to Perth Sunday evening was unable to land in wind that exceeded aircraft maximums, with the pilot requesting to hold north of Perth while winds eased.

People on a Qantas from Sydney to Perth experienced severe windshear (significant change in speed and direction of the prevailing wind) on final approach and was diverted to Kalgoorlie.

It travelled to Kalgoorlie to get fuel after conducting a holding pattern East of Perth prior to its initial approach. It has yet to depart for Perth and remains in Kalgoorlie Monday morning.

Other flights, from Denpasar and Karratha, were diverted to Kalgoorlie after making two unsuccessful attempts to land in Perth. Both eventually landed in Perth later Sunday evening.