Tornado-like storm hits NSW Southern Tablelands - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A violent storm has torn roofs from buildings, toppled trees and caused hail damage near Yass on the New South Wales Southern Tablelands.

The system hit the small community of Good Hope yesterday afternoon.

No injuries were reported and the clean-up will continue today.

A violent "tornado-like" storm cell has torn roofs from buildings, toppled trees and brought "golf-ball-sized hail" to a small rural community on the New South Wales Southern Tablelands.

The system hit Good Hope, about 12 kilometres outside Yass, on Saturday afternoon.

The SES says the storm ripped off six roofs and damaged the roofs of 10 other buildings.   (Supplied: David Rothwell)

Yass Valley councillor and resident David Rothwell said the storm was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"It made a hell of a noise and then things got pretty wild.

"Lightning strikes and big hail, golf-ball-sized, pounding windows and the roof."

Destruction following the extreme weather event across the Southern Tablelands yesterday afternoon.  (Supplied: NSW RFS Southern Tablelands Zone)

Cr Rothwell described it as "pretty scary". 

The NSW SES said the storm ripped off six roofs and damaged the roofs of 10 other buildings.

Strong winds toppled trees, initially blocking road access to the area.

SES commander for the Yass Hilltops area Deanne Young says they didn't get much warning before the storm hit.  (ABC News: Lish Fejer)

SES commander for the Yass Hilltops area, Deanne Young, described it as a "tornado-like event".

"It hit very hard and very fast and did some pretty significant damage," she said.

"There did appear to be a bit of a funnel forming out of the clouds.

Good Hope Resort owner Elizabeth Richardson-Szabo said that a pergola roof from one of the houses in the holiday park came off and "went rolling up the paddock 120 metres away".

"[The roof] took out a power pole, and some power lines came down in the park," she said. 

The owner of Good Hope Resort says a pergola roof from one of the properties "went flying" and travelled 120 metres away.  (Supplied: Elizabeth Richardson-Szabo)

She said the park was then without power for about eight hours. 

"Our poor neighbours they copped it pretty bad and I feel sorry for them," Ms Richardson-Szabo said. 

"But thankfully no one got hurt in the process so that's the biggest and best news."

For Good Hope resident Tom Walsh, the "phenomenal" weather event turned into "more than a bit of rain".

Tom Walsh says he's never seen a weather event like it before.  (ABC News: Lish Fejer)

"It just came quick; it looked like it was building up and then it was just here. It was all over and done with in sort of 10-15 minutes," he said.

He said his shed no longer had a side wall and that a lot of the roof panels had been blown out.

A shipping container on his property was moved roughly 300 metres by the storm and took out a horse float in its path. 

A shipping container on Tom Walsh's property took out a horse float during the storm. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)

"I lived in the Pilbara for 15 years, [and] had a few cyclones [that] we went through," he said.

No injuries linked to the weather event have been reported, but Good Hope residents are now facing a lengthy clean-up.

"We just keep tidying now, figure out how to get a 40-foot shipping container back on its side and back in the right paddock," Mr Walsh said.

Cr Rothwell described the damage as "heartbreaking".

"I've got mates whose houses had their roofs ripped off," he said.

"It's terrible, sheds destroyed, horrible."