Wild winds have caused widespread damage across Adelaide overnight, downing trees and more than 100 powerlines, cutting power to thousands of homes and several schools.
SA Power Networks said more than 30,000 customers — the majority of whom are yet to be reconnected — lost power across Adelaide, and the State Emergency Service has received more than 200 calls of fallen trees.
Paul Roberts from SA Power Networks said it could be some time before power was restored and warned people to stay clear of any downed powerlines.
"[It could] be some hours before we'll be able to get to many of these sites to actually be able to make an assessment," he said.
"In addition, we've got about 40 reports of wires down, so I just wanted to make it really clear to people to stay well clear of any wires down.
"We don't want anyone getting electric shocks and if they are going to go and have a look at their property, they should be very aware of if there are any power lines that have been brought down by trees that have come down and keep well clear."
Later in the morning, SA Power Networks issued a statement to say it had received reports of more than 120 downed powerlines since 3am, and said regional crews had been called in to assist with the workload.
"Crews are working to safely restore power as soon as possible," the statement read.
"We have extra inspectors out assessing the damage, and vegetation crews to cut back fallen branches and trees, as well as support in logistics and inventory."
In the statement, SA Power Networks said it was difficult to estimate power restoration times in each area "as it is likely there are multiple faults impacting the power supply".
Power was cut to about half of UniSA's Magill campus, and at least 10 schools and learning centres have been closed, impacting NAPLAN tests.
The state's Education Department said Coorara Primary, Marryatville High, Glen Osmond Primary, Paradise Primary, Fairview Park Primary, Unley High, Banksia Park Primary and Modbury West schools, and the Adelaide East Education Centre and il nido Children's Centre have all been closed.
"There are NAPLAN protocols in place which mean any school that had been due to do tests today, and was impacted by an outage, can reschedule for another day within the 9-day testing window," the department said.
The winds caused branches to fall on roads and onto roofs, resulting in widespread damage.
Hannah Marsh from the Bureau of Meteorology said winds of up to 61 kilometres per hour were recorded at Sellicks Beach, with gusts of up to 85 kilometres per hour.
Just before 7am, she said wind speeds were still between 35 and 50 kilometres per hour, with gusts up to 60 kilometres per hour.
"So it has eased a little bit, but we are expecting the winds to remain gusty really for the next few hours," she said.
Adelaide foothills hit hardest: SES
SES duty officer Corey Fraser told ABC Radio Adelaide most of the damage has been concentrated around the Adelaide foothills.
"The eastern foothills has certainly borne the brunt of that wind overnight," he said.
"The figures are climbing as the requests for assistance come in.
"We saw the first wind gusts with a couple of trees down around 3 o'clock this morning in the southern suburbs and then by 5 o'clock things were really picking up."
"It looks like the solar panels are sort of holding the roof in place at the moment," said one resident of the Adelaide foothills suburb of Skye.
"It was a big louse noise, it's been flapping around. The SES came out and sandbagged for us, but it was just too dangerous for them up there."
Cheryl from Kensington Gardens called in to ABC Radio Adelaide and said her neighbour's tree had fallen onto her car.
"Woke up to the noise of next door's tree coming down on our car and on the roof, but fortunately the SES responded very quickly and helped move it off," she said.
"Now we've just got to survey the damage with the insurers, the roof [of the car] is not looking good."
Melanie, also from Kensington Gardens, said her trampoline was blown away during the wild weather.
"We saw some branches had fallen off our gum tree, one or two have fallen off and we did not realise for a little bit of time that our very large trampoline had disappeared over the back fence," she said.
