Floods, felled trees, airport chaos after SA storms

Wild storms have left thousands of homes without power, downed trees and flooded streets across Adelaide.

Scotch College south of the city recorded 75mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday, while wind gusts of 72km/h were recorded at Adelaide airport.

Flights were grounded until 8.30am after lightning strikes prevented staff from stepping on to the tarmac to load and refuel aircraft.

The airport was still working through a backlog of delays, Adelaide Airport executive general manager Dermot O'Neill said.

“We have seen some delays to those first flights going out, which has unfortunately caused some corresponding delays to those first flights coming in,” he told ABC Radio.

Almost 5000 customers were still without power as of 10.30am local time, down from 14,000 earlier in the morning.

Severe thunderstorm warnings for heavy rainfall and damaging winds remained in place for the Adelaide Metropolitan, Mount Lofty Ranges, Riverland and Murraylands regions, as well as parts of Yorke Peninsula, Mid North, Kangaroo Island, North East Pastoral, Flinders and Upper South East districts.

SA SES State Duty Officer Brenton Clarke said requests for flood assistance were the most common calls emergency services were receiving.

“From just after 6am, with this severe rainfall that's occurred over the metropolitan area, the number of jobs has skyrocketed and we're now sitting on 161 requests for assistance,” he told Adelaide radio 5AA.

Houses were being inundated by water coming across roads and through roofs, Mr Clarke said.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting conditions to improve for the remainder of Tuesday, with Adelaide predicted to reach 21C with showers easing throughout the day.