ACT emergency services say they are prepared for more fast-moving storms like the one that tore through parts of southern Canberra on Sunday.
Hail and heavy winds hit Tuggeranong Valley and Weston Creek at about 7.30pm, bringing down some power lines in the suburbs of Chapman, Fisher, Rivett and Stirling.
Emergency services received 148 calls for assistance as the storm felled trees and damaged residences, with 27 of those jobs still outstanding on Monday afternoon.
ACT State Emergency Service director of operations Erica Collins said personnel had learnt from their response to a severe storm which struck Belconnen in January, leaving some residents without power for up to six days.
"Which had many, many more requests for assistance, in the thousands actually," Ms Collins said.
The biggest takeaway was ensuring personnel were ready to respond to requests to remove fallen trees.
"So over the last few months, we've been ensuring that our chainsaw capability has been sustained, and that we've always been deploying with chainsaws so that we can remove fallen trees away from houses and powerlines."
Ms Collins urged people to prepare for more weather like this by trimming overhanging trees, clearing their gutters, updating their survival plans and having a home emergency kit.
"Stay inside, and then stay away from any downed power lines and trees on power lines."
People should call 132500 for the State Emergency Service is they need assistance, and 000 if they're in a life threatening emergency, she said.
"Our teams are well and truly prepared, and this is not the only event that we've responded to this season and we're fully expecting more storm events like this to occur," she said.
Damaged homes
Arriving home on Sunday evening, Waramanga resident Andrew Davis discovered a tree had fallen on it.
Mr Davis said he was lucky he wasn't home at the time.
Three to four branches still lay across the roof of his townhouse on Monday morning.
"There's three or four other even bigger trees near to this one, if they fell towards our house, I think they'd make considerable damage," he said.
"And I'd be very concerned about that happening if I was in the house."
"All of the rain in the last three years has softened the soil so much that I can only see this happening more."
Qantas flight struck by lightning
Passengers on a flight from Fiji reported their plane had been struck by lightning during the storm, after it was diverted to Canberra Airport due to the weather.
The Qantas flight had been on its way to Sydney.
"Aircraft are designed to withstand and fly safely when struck by lightning but it is policy that they get inspected at their arrival port after a strike," a Qantas spokesperson said.
"The aircraft was inspected by engineers last night and cleared to return to service."
Passengers were given hotel accommodation and rebooked to travel on Monday.
Thousands left without power in aftermath
Senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology Rosemary Barr said the hailstones were from a "specific cell, specific storm" that moved through Canberra.
Ms Barr said because of the isolated nature of the storm, only parts of Canberra experienced the hail while other parts had rain or no significant weather activity.
As at 8pm on Sunday, Evoenergy reported that the ACT was experiencing four unplanned outages affecting about 3800 customers.
By Monday afternoon that had reduced to 202 customers experiencing unplanned outages, affecting parts of Rivett, Kambah and Holder.
Authorities advise residents to stay clear of downed powerlines at all times, and listen to the advice of emergency services on scene.
