A young family’s newly built home was among 54 houses that were severely damaged in the tornado-like storm that hit Grays Point on Saturday night.
Another family had completed seven years of renovations only to see a huge tree flatten a large part of their home.
However, no one was injured in the devastation, which emergency services co-ordinators said was “miraculous”.
Sutherland Shire SES leading senior officer Greg Penny, who was one of the first on the scene and has been involved since, said some of the houses were “pretty well knocked around”, and some residents were unable to return home.
“The winds that came through were tornadic in nature and, by the scale of destruction, would have been well over 100km/h,” he said.
“The first night was pretty insane.
“The situational awareness of the emergency services was limited at first, but as the night progressed all the agencies worked together, and with essential services, to get access.”
Ty and Melissa Winmill and their three children, 11, nine and six, moved into the house they built in Fernhill Place only a month ago.
Mr Winmill was looking after the children while his wife was out when the storm hit about 8pm.
“I was in a bedroom putting together a bed when the door flew open and I was drenched by rain,” he said.
”Water poured into the house and then I heard a huge crash –two trees crashed on to the house.
Melissa Winmill was distraught when she drove back into Grays Point to find a police road block, but managed to find a way through.
The couple said the storm had “terrified” their children.
Across the road, Steve McMahon was surveying the damage to his home.
A huge tree crushed his outdoor entertaining area, second lounge room and master bedroom.
Mr McMahon said it was lucky it was his wife Mel’s birthday and the family was out celebrating.
“Any other Saturday night we would have been sitting around the table in the outside entertaining area,” he said.
Mr McMahon said they had been renovating the house for seven years and added with a smile “I had only just cleared the gutters.”.
Mayor Carmelo Pesce praised the efforts of emergency services volunteers after being briefed at control headquarters by SES senior officers Jim Pullin and Greg Penny, Inspector Ugo Tolone of the Rural Fire Service, Inspector Clay Allison of Fire & Rescue NSW and Colin Roberts (Captain of Grays Point RFS).
“In my tenure as mayor, I have had Kurnell [the 2015 tornado], the bushfires last year and now this, and I am just amazed, at what you guys do,” he said.
Cr Pesce said Sutherland Shire had more volunteers per capita than anywhere in Australia.
By Monday afternoon, the three services had provided a total of 300 man-hours to the Grays Point recovery effort, with 150 to 200 personnel involved at any one time.
Streets were full of emergency services vehicles, some from out of Sydney.
They are “about two-third to three-quarters way through” their task at Grays Point, with 30 outstanding jobs out of 109 at the start.
Across the rest of the shire, there were about 290 calls to the SES for assistance, with 97 outstanding on Monday afternoon.
Damage was widespread across the shire, with Loftus also badly hit.
Kirrawee, Cronulla and Caringbah were other affected suburbs.
Many of the trees that were either uprooted or lost branches at Grays Point were Angophoras.
