Thousands of homes still without power after Sydney lashed by storm cell

Thousands of Sydney residents are still without electricity after an intense burst of thunderstorms caused widespread power outages.

Nine people were rescued from floodwaters and more than 40,000 properties were initially without power after the storms across Sydney and the Illawarra and the Hunter regions yesterday. 

The short but sharp storms caused flash-flooding in several areas, including Parramatta in Sydney's west where intersections became lakes and several drivers needed the SES to help get them out of their cars.

Guildford copped 61 millimetres of rain, including 47mm in just 30 minutes while Sydney Olympic Park received 40mm in the 40 minutes to 7pm.

Elsewhere, 50mm fell at West Pennant Hills, 40mm at Peakhurst and 36mm at Chatswood.

This morning, Endeavour Energy and Ausgrid were still working to restore power to about 7700 properties.

Endeavour Energy said crews had restored supply to over 23,000 customers overnight but about 5700 remained without electricity.

"There are nearly 300 electrical hazards needing repairs particularly where trees and large branches have fallen across powerlines," a statement said.

Because of the work required, it wasn't possible to give an accurate estimate of when specific customers would have their electricity restored

Some 30,000 properties on Ausgrid's network also went dark last night, and a spokesman this morning said about 2000 were still without power

The storms also caused massive havoc on rail lines, with some trains taking two hours to travel between Strathfield and Parramatta

Sydney Trains said there were problems due to lightening strikes on the line.

The SES had 589 jobs on its books by 9.30pm, mainly for leaky roofs and trees down.

Almost 500 of were for the Sydney metro area, including 157 in Parramatta and neighbouring suburbs.

Of those, nine people were pulled from waterlogged vehicles.

Endeavour Energy warned the damage was so extensive that some of the 27,800 homes in western Sydney without power would not have it restored until later this morning.

Some 250 electrical hazards had been reported since the storm hit, a spokesman said.

"Emergency crews are patrolling affected areas to make safe and switch around damaged parts of the network to safely restore power supply to as many customers as possible."

The power issues also affected the start of the AFLW match between GWS Giants and North Melbourne when two light towers at Drummoyne went out before the game's scheduled start of 7.15pm.

The match, which got underway about 8pm, was further delayed when three light towers lost power during the second quarter.