Narrabri bore the brunt of Thursday afternoon's tempest.

Wind gusts passing over the Narrabri airport weather station were clocked at 155km/h.

Yesterday a massive clean-up effort got underway, with the State Emergency Service co-ordinating response operations, the Narrabri Shire Council organising roadside debris collection and residents doing what they could to assist.

The violent storm, that struck Narrabri at 5.35pm, shifted paddocks of dust and threw down sizeable hailstones.

The SES received more than 100 requests for assistance, with damage ranging from smashed windows, missing roofs and even one instance of an overturned shipping container, however there were no reported injuries.

Country Energy said the storm cut power supplies to between 5000 and 10,000 north-west residents between 5.30pm and 2am.

Late yesterday, about 300 Moree and Narrabri households remained without electricity.

Narrabri old-timers Bill Gett and Gordon Doyle claimed the storm was the worst in the district's recorded history.

A dozen eyewitness accounts indicated the storm started west of Wee Waa and travelled down a corridor between Narrabri Creek and the Namoi River before hitting Narrabri. About eight houses received significant roof damage, while the rear of a fibro house in Doyle St was badly damaged.

Barwan Rd residents Terry and Jan Foxe were in their back shed when the gusts came up.

"The storm only lasted about three minutes. Everything was hanging in until the last wind gusts belted across and 30 seconds later all the damage was done," Mr Foxe said.

When the winds died down, the Foxes, who had clung to the walls of the shed, emerged to find a large gum tree on their caravan and a neighbour's tree across the front of their house.

As the couple assessed the damage yesterday, they pointed to a metal silo and a dozen large water tanks that were left dumped in a nearby paddock after being blown more than 500m from the yard of Narrabri Landmark.

Around the corner, part of the Narrabri Public School roof was missing, while the inside of the nearby McKechnie Bros Hardware store was exposed to the elements.

Purchase manager Richard Herden said he was locking the front door of the business when the back section of the iron roof was ripped from the building.

P and O employee, Sharon Wheeler, who was on site at the company's cotton storage sheds off the Wee Waa Rd, watched on as an office block was levelled.

Yesterday, all that remained standing on the cement slab was a softdrink vending machine.

"The rest of the building has blown across the paddocks," Mrs Wheeler said.

Worst of all, when the office collapsed it pushed a shipping container into the direction of Mrs Wheeler's car.

Early yesterday the metal container remained propped up above the damaged car, resting only on a steel beam, until a crane arrived to remove it.

The Narrabri Golf Course, which marks its 100th anniversary in March, was closed and could be for up to a fortnight.

Club greens chairman Ian Rose and a band of members were yesterday attempting to clear the course.

Life member Bill Gett said up to 85 per cent of the large gums on the course had lost limbs or were up-ended.

"In my 80 years this is by far the worst storm I have seen," he said.