Nearly half a million homes were without power in the Australian state of Victoria after a storm destroyed parts of the network.
Videos posted online showed heavy rains and strong winds uprooting trees and destroying entire barns.
Severe weather also hampered efforts to combat massive wildfires in the west of the state.
A catastrophic fire weather warning has been issued for an area, the highest bushfire danger level in Australia.
State Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said Tuesday's power outage was one of the largest in Victoria's history.
“At peak, 529,000 people were without power due to physical damage to power lines due to severe weather,” she said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The outage occurred after a number of transmission towers collapsed in the storm, forcing a power station to stop working.
There was also widespread transport disruption in Melbourne, with half of the city's train lines suspended.
Public Transport Victoria (PTV) said it had to close several lines due to multiple reports of storm damage.
The Met Office issued severe weather warnings but most were later cancelled.
In the Western Wimmera, a catastrophic fire weather warning has been issued.
Conditions there are said to be the worst since catastrophic bushfires four years ago. The earthquake killed 480 people, destroyed 2,500 homes, and burned 24 million hectares of land – an area the size of the United Kingdom.
Five firefighters suffered minor burns when fast-moving flames engulfed the vehicle they were traveling in in the town of Bomonal.
“It's obviously a very scary experience for everyone involved,” Chris Hardiman, chief fire officer with Bushfire Victoria, told ABC News Public Radio.
Emma Kelly, MP for Loan, said she had been told up to 30 properties were missing in the local area.
Australia has already dealt with hundreds of fires, some of which have turned deadly, since summer officially began in December, although the fire season began long before that.
Last winter was the warmest in the country since records began more than 100 years ago, according to the Met Office. This was followed by its driest autumn.
The world's leading climate scientists have warned that a future filled with worsening disasters, including storms and fires, is likely unless urgent action is taken to tackle climate change.
