Emergency services have been kept busy after a number of intense storm cells swept over Newcastle and Lake Macquarie on Wednesday afternoon.
The State Emergency Service was called to 64 jobs in Newcastle and 29 in Lake Macquarie to reports of trees down and leaking rooves.
Wallsend was the hardest hit by the storms, with 74 millimetres of rain recorded between 3 and 4pm.
A woman and two children had to be rescued by SES crews after water surrounded a shop at Islington.
Ausgrid has restored power to almost 15,000 thousand homes and businesses, with only a couple of hundred awaiting reconnection.
The University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus has reopened after being forced to close overnight.
Firefighters were called to extinguish a small fire at the Outback Jacks restaurant at Glendale after a parapet took a direct hit from lightning - 5 people were evacuated from the restaurant.
In a separate incident, a 26-year-old man has been taken to hospital after being rescued from a the Skate Park on Maitland Road at Islington just after 1.30am on Thursday morning.
