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Winds ease after wild night

Tuesday August 25, 2009 - 11:23 EST

Weather conditions that have brought disruption to roads, power and flights across New South Wales have begun to ease.

The Bureau of Meteorology has cancelled its severe weather warning for damaging winds in Sydney, the Riverina, north west slopes and plains, central west slopes and plains, south west slopes, central tablelands, and the Hunter Valley.

Overnight and this morning, wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres an hour blew down trees and power lines.

A road had to be closed at Waitara in Sydney's north, after the awning of an apartment block was blown down.

At its height about 7,000 homes were left without power - around 2,500 households are still blacked out in Sydney's west and north.

Peter Payne from Integral Energy says most homes will have their power back on later today.

"Customers are spread across the Hawkesbury, Western Sydney and McArthur regions," he said.

"We currently have 42 emergency crews working on restoring power and our ambition is to have them, all customers back on supply today."

The State Emergency Service said its volunteers had been busy since about 6.00am AEST and were expecting more calls to help fix damage to property.

Flights in and out of Sydney Airport were facing 90 minute delays this morning, which could have a knock-on effect for the rest of the day.

Passengers are being advised to contact their individual airlines.

The weather bureau says winds are expected to pick up in the state's south east again tonight.

- ABC

© ABC 2009