Wild storms whipped the region on Sunday evening producing rain, strong winds and hail throughout the district.

Inverell and Ashford SES worked through Australia Day removing fallen trees from roads and assisting some residents with damaged roofs.

Inverell, Ashford, Bundarra, Delungra and Copeton were subjected to violent storms with heavy rain and strong winds.

Lyn Stevens of the Ashford General Store witnessed the storms.

"There was just lightning, lightning, lightning everywhere, really violent for about two hours”.

Mrs Stevens recorded 33mm on Monday the morning after the downpour.

Hail fell across the Inverell area, with smaller amounts falling on surrounding communities.

Ashford SES was called out to remove trees and branches downed across Limestone and Wallangra roads.

Unit controller Kevin Hinton said branches littered the road right through to Ashford.

"We had 29mm of rain here and strong winds”.

No Ashford homes were damaged, although a few shed roofs were lost in the strong wind.

Inverell SES was also called out to Bundarra Rd where trees had fallen.

At least two hail damaged Inverell homes were also attended to.

Ken and Shirley Bryars' home incurred hail damage on its front awning.

Mrs Bryars said the stones were as big as cricket balls.

"No exaggerating- there were hundreds of them on the lawn.”

"This is the third time it's happened to us- we're beginning to get used to it!”

Doug George's home was also damaged in the storm which allowed water to come through into his sunroom.

"The water was just pouring in here, but the SES were wonderful, they just came straight away and fixed it up.

"Once the sun came out, we went out and picked these up, but they were bigger than this because they've since melted”

"The SES were wonderful, thank goodness we have people who will help so quickly because we didn't even know if it would keep raining while we were trying to fix it.”

© 2004 Inverell Times

<< Back