Storms across the Tamworth region on Monday morning brought some welcome rain and a not-so-welcome power outage for residents for one suburb.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The power was switched off to1885 homes and businesses in Calala at 9:35am.
The outage followed reports of a substation fire in Peregrine Avenue.
Essential Energy crews called in to assess the damage, identified the problem was due to a lighting strike, causing a fault and fire on an underground power cable.
Crews worked quickly to isolate the fault and were able to restore power to all but 75 customers by 10.35am.
Specialist underground crews have been working to reroute the network and restore supply to around 35 customers.
The remaining customers will be connected to a large generator that will power their properties until repairs can be made to the electricity network.
It's expected that power will be restored for the remaining customers later this afternoon.
"Essential Energy thanks the community for its patience while our teams were restoring the network and reminds customers that lightning strikes can cause interruptions to the power supply," a spokesperson for the power provider told the Leader.
If you see fallen powerlines, network damage, fires or trees contacting powerlines, immediately report it to Essential Energy on 13 20 80 or call triple zero if the situation is life threatening.
Rainfall a nice surprise
Meanwhile, the rest of the region lapped up the rainfall.
Residents in East Tamworth have reported up to 75mm of rain in the gauge.
While some in South Tamworth saw more than 110mm drop from the sky.
The official figure from the Bureau of Meteorology was 63.4mm since 9am.
The forecast is for a partly cloudy day on Tuesday, with a top of 32 degrees.
There is the chance of a shower or two by Wednesday, and possible showers Thursday.