NSW and Queensland warned to 'prepare themselves' for more destructive storms

Queensland and NSW residents are being warned to prepare themselves for more destructive storms as authorities ramp up efforts in anticipation for 200mm of rain.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecasted showers and thunderstorms in Sydney and Brisbane today with locally heavy rain, flash flooding, hail and damaging winds expected to continue this afternoon.

It has also issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast and Northern Tablelands region.

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In Queensland, severe storm warnings have been issued for the Wide Bay and Burnett forecast districts, with damaging winds and hail on the horizon.

Hails has already smashed the Gold Coast and 25,006 properties have lost power in the state's south-east.

The NSW SES has issued a watch and act warning for severe storms in northern NSW as rainfall totals of up to 200mm in a 48-hour period are expected.

"Over the next 48 hours, the most severe weather is expected to impact the area from Port Stephens to South West Rocks, as well as the far north-east of the state," NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing said.

"People should prepare themselves now, know their risks and never drive, walk, ride or play in flash flooding should they come across a flooded road or causeway."

Severe thunderstorms are set to combine with a low-pressure weather system that is expected to bring locally significant rain from today through to Sunday.

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Tomorrow is estimated to be the peak day for rain.

A flood watch has been issued with minor flooding possible for the: Orara, Coffs Coast, Bellinger and Kalang River Catchments, Manning and Gloucester, Myall River, Karuah River, Wollombi Brook and Lower Hunter, Paterson and Williams Rivers.

The wet spell comes after four storms barrelled towards the east coast last night, dumping heavy rain and spinning up damaging winds after producing hail further west.

One man was killed in the Central West and another 143,000 people were left without power.

Weatherzone said 73,700 lightning strikes hit within 100km of the CBD and 8777 strikes reached the ground.

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SES respond to 3000 callouts

The SES said they had responded to more than 3000 incidents since yesterday.

More than 500 incidents remain outstanding as crews try to work through them today.

The majority of the incidents were related to fallen trees, powerlines and damaged properties in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Newcastle/Hunter region.

The Sydney metro area was the worst-affected, with 679 callouts, followed by Hornsby and Karinga.

In Carlingford, 14 people were left desperately finding a place to stay for the night after a roof ripped off a property.

A large tree fell, impacting a hospital in St Leonards. In Castle Hill, a person was rescued after being trapped in a car from a fallen tree.

In the 24 hours to 9am today, 127mm of rainfall hit Eurobodalla, 102mm lashed Barlows Bay and 70mm fell over Beaumont.

More than 143,000 customers were without power across the Hunter, northern Sydney, broader Wollongong area and more rural areas.

In an update at 3.20pm today, Ausgrid said power had been restored to 55,000 homes and businesses while 83,500 still remain without.

"Approximately 90 per cent of the outages occurred last night as a result of lightning strikes, with more than 300,000 strikes reported across the state," Ausgrid said.

"Restoring power has been further exacerbated by high winds, falling trees and continuing bad weather."

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Endeavour Energy said it had called in additional crews to restore 55,000 outages. That number had dropped below 35,000 by 4am.

Essential Energy, which is responsible for most of the state outside of Sydney and its surrounds, said wind, rain and hail started to provoke outages about 1.30pm.

Power had been restored to more than 18,600 customers with more than 10,400 still without power today.

Driver killed by falling tree

As the storms made there way across the Central West, powerful winds caused damage and one man died.

Police said the driver, believed to be in his 80s, died after a tree fell on his car on Lachlan Valley Way, Cowra.

Officers called to the scene about 3.50pm found the man dead when they arrived.

The town was one of several to cop wind gusts in excess of 100km/h, along with Scone, Tamworth, Dubbo, and Sydney airport. One gust topped 120km/h in Williamstown.

Several towns including Mandurama, Araluen and Perisher Valley copped about 30 millimetres of rain in half an hour.

Another four people were injured when demountable camping huts flipped in strong winds at Bomen in Wagga Wagga about 2.35pm, according to the SES.

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