An extensive clean-up operation continued Friday after a brief but ripping storm that dumped rain, raked the region with southerly winds, and peppered parts of Cessnock, Pokolbin and Thornton with hail the previous afternoon.
Some 5000 residents of the Hunter lost power to their homes as a southerly change brought a powerful summer thunderstorm that downed trees and limbs, in one case crashing through a Nulkaba home and in another causing a gas leak at a property at Aberdare.
