A tiny town where David Bowie once filmed a music video has lost three commercial buildings, including a pub, during wild storms that smashed much of NSW. 

The State Emergency Service (SES) logged more than 270 incidents across NSW yesterday, with 49 in the state’s west.

One of the worst-affected areas was Carinda, a small town near Walgett with fewer than 100 residents, where winds ripped the roofs off the local pub, pizza shop and general store.

Carinda man Chris Isaac said the community had been devastated by the storm’s impact.

“House next door lost its roof, Bill over the back, he’s lost his house pretty much, he’s not looking real good.

“Water tank from the other side of town rolled up against my back fence, bits of tin just everywhere.”

Andrew Edmunds from the SES said the ferocity of the wind caught locals by surprise.

“That would have been well in excess of 100 to 150 kilometres per hour,” he said.

“So very strong winds that have led to some significant damage.

“We’ll be working with the local council and the residents today in that area to work through the clean-up efforts.”

Carinda hosts an annual Let’s Dance festival, and rock star David Bowie filmed parts of the video clip for his hit 1983 song there.

Walgett Shire mayor Jasen Ramien described the event as a “freak storm”.

He said the wild winds had made a “fair mess” of the town’s main street and the lightning that followed sparked numerous fires across the area.

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The SES responded to more than 80 calls for help across the Sydney region, and there were widespread reports of power outages across the western and southern inland regions of the state. 

Thousands of people were left without power for a number of hours across the Riverina and some are still blacked out.

There was chaos on the roads of Wagga Wagga when traffic lights at several major intersection stopped working.

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Essential Energy restored power to most of the region yesterday afternoon, although some outages still remain and are being investigated. 

The SES is advising residents to keep clear of damaged buildings, fallen trees and power lines. 

More severe thunderstorms are forecast for north-eastern NSW today.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning that a destructive cold front is still making its way north across eastern Australia.

Senior meteorologist Kristy Johnson said the same weather system that sparked bushfires in the southern states also battered much of southern and western NSW.

She said while the storms had been around for a week, yesterday’s front was very damaging.

“We had a strong cold front that moved through the southern part of the country and that was what brought the extreme to at times catastrophic fire danger through SA and Victoria,” Ms Johnson said.

“That front then moved up the coast of NSW.”

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