Hail and lightning storms around the Bega Valley had dropped thousands of lightning strikes with Essential Energy reporting 8 separate incidences causing outages. 

Early estimates are that power should be restored by 11.30am to the majority of those affected. 

Candelo residents had also reported it was the worst storm many had ever seen, while people In Bega, Merimbula and Tura said there had been multiple bouts of hail that almost matched the storms in December. 

The Bureau of Meteorology [BOM] was reporting about 30mm of rainfall until 7am in Bega, while a similar 27mm was reported in Kalaru. 

BOM had recorded just 11mm of rain until 7am in the Merimbula area and the same for Eden in the south, but many social media users reported heavy rains throughout the night. 

Lightning storms had also been raging since about 2am and looked set to continue as of 7.30am.