Storm Damage to Your Electrical System: What Sydney Homeowners Need to Know

What should you do after a storm damages your electrical system? Check for hazards from a safe distance, work out whether the problem is on the network's side or yours, and document everything before repairs start. If the whole street is dark, call your distributor. If only your home is affected, or something smells burnt, you need an electrician, and for anything on fire or actively arcing, call 000 first.

⚡ Quick Answers: after storm damage

• Who do I call first? Whole street out: your distributor, Ausgrid on 13 13 88 or Endeavour Energy on 131 003. Just your place: an electrician. Fire or immediate danger: 000.
• Is it safe once the power comes back? Not automatically. Surge and water damage can sit hidden in wiring and appliances and show up days later.
• What does my insurer need? Photos, a timeline, and a written report from a licensed electrician. Homeowner photos alone are rarely enough.
• What must I not touch? Anything wet, any fallen wire, and breakers that keep tripping. A tripping breaker is protecting you from a live fault.
• Which repairs need a Level 2 electrician? Anything on the service line, point of attachment, consumer mains or metering, which is exactly where storms hit hardest.

1. The first 24 hours: check safely, touch nothing

Storm damage is often invisible from the hallway. Walk the house and look for scorch marks around outlets, switches and the switchboard, note any burning smell, and record which circuits or rooms lost power and when. Check whether water reached the meter box or switchboard, and whether appliances behave oddly: flickering lights, warm outlets, gear that will not restart.

The don't list matters more than the do list. Don't touch anything wet. Don't keep resetting a breaker or safety switch that trips again. Don't assume the system is fine because power returned. And if water has entered the board, leave it alone entirely; our wet switchboard guide explains why re-energising is the worst move. Fallen wires outside get an 8 metre buffer and a call to the network, per our fallen power line guide.

2. Network problem or your problem?

The short version: the distributor owns the street mains, poles and transformers, and everything up to the point where your service connects; you own your service equipment, private pole, switchboard and wiring. Whole street dark means network fault, so report it and wait. Only your house dark, with neighbours lit up, usually means a fault on your side or on your individual service, which is where an electrician comes in.

The full responsibility map, including the insurance dimension, is covered in storm damage: who's responsible, so this guide will not repeat it. If you are not even sure which network covers your street, check your network area in seconds with our postcode checker.

3. Document everything for the insurance claim

Insurers approve claims on evidence, and the evidence is easy to capture on the day and painful to reconstruct later. Take wide shots showing where the damage sits in the house, close ups of scorch marks, water staining and damaged gear, and photos of the storm's calling cards outside: fallen branches, hail, roof damage. Note the timeline: when the storm hit, when power failed, when you found each problem.

Then get the piece that carries the most weight: a written assessment from a licensed electrician stating what was damaged, what caused it and what repair is needed. Report the claim to your insurer promptly, ideally within a day or two of finding the damage, and keep a record of what you told them. Our older guide to using an electrician for an insurance claim covers the paperwork side in more detail.

4. What the post storm inspection involves

A post storm electrical inspection is methodical rather than mysterious. The visual pass covers the switchboard, breakers and safety switches, outlets, metering and visible wiring. Testing follows where damage is suspected: insulation resistance on affected circuits, safety switch trip tests, and earthing checks, because a lightning event can compromise the earthing system without leaving a mark you can see.

Four outcomes are possible. All clear, documented for your records. Minor repairs, quoted and usually approved by insurers without drama. Major repairs to the board, service line or wiring, quoted for the claim. Or the fault turns out to sit on the network side after all, in which case it goes back to the distributor at no cost to you.

5. Repairs: who does what

Inside wiring, circuits and switchboard repairs are licensed electrical work. The moment the damage touches the overhead service line, point of attachment, consumer mains, private pole or metering, it becomes Level 2 ASP work, because that equipment connects to the network. A storm that tears the service cable off the fascia therefore needs one crew for the make safe and reconnection and, ideally, the same crew for the internal repairs, which is the gap our emergency make safe and storm damage repair services are built to close.

6. Hardening the system before the next one

Once the claim settles, spend a little of it on prevention. Whole house surge protection at the switchboard is the highest value upgrade against lightning driven damage, covered in our surge protection guide. An ageing board is better replaced calmly than in a queue of post storm emergencies, per our switchboard upgrade service. And the wider seasonal picture, from tree clearance to backup power, is in our storm season prep guide.

How High Demand Electrical helps

We handle the whole post storm sequence across Sydney: 24/7 make safe attendance, insurer ready inspection reports with photos, repairs from a single damaged circuit to full board and service line replacement, and reconnection as Level 2 ASPs without waiting on a second contractor. If the storm exposed older defects, we clear those too through our defect notice rectification service.

Storm Damage FAQs (Sydney)

The power came back but some rooms are dead. Who fixes that?

That is a fault on your side, usually a tripped or damaged circuit, and it is an electrician's job. Note which rooms and circuits are affected before you call; it speeds up fault finding.

Will insurance cover storm damaged appliances?

Commonly yes for storm and surge damage, subject to your policy. The electrician's report establishing cause is what moves those claims, so get the assessment before disposing of anything.

How soon should an electrician check the house after a big storm?

If there are visible signs, immediately. If everything seems fine but the storm was severe or lightning struck nearby, an electrical safety inspection within the following days is cheap insurance against hidden damage.

Can I claim the make safe cost?

Emergency make safe work is a standard component of storm claims with most insurers. Keep the invoice and the report; both feed the claim.

Storm damage at your place?

Book a storm damage assessment or call 0402 559 777, 24/7. Every job starts with a site assessment so the scope and pricing are confirmed before work begins.