BUENOS AIRES — A blackout stripped all of mainland Argentina and Uruguay of power early Sunday, affecting tens of millions of people in an electrical failure that officials called unprecedented in its scope.

The cause remained under investigation by late Sunday, when power had been largely restored to both countries. Much of Argentina was hit by heavy rainfall over the weekend, and Uruguay’s state-owned utility, UTE, said some systems had been damaged by the recent rain and still needed to be repaired.

“This is the first time something like this has happened across the entire country,” said Alejandra Martínez, a spokeswoman for Edesur, an electricity company in Argentina that serves parts of Buenos Aires and its suburbs. She called it “a complete blackout in Argentina.”

The blackout may have affected a population greater than California’s, across a region four times the size of Texas: Argentina has more than 44 million people, and Uruguay about 3.5 million. </s> New South Wales endures severe off-the-scale' blaze amid a record-breaking heatwave that has sparked dire warnings.

Australian authorities ordered the evacuation of some rural areas of New South Wales as bushfires, fanned by extreme heat and strong winds, raged across the state.

By Sunday afternoon, emergency warnings were issued for five rural areas. People were told to evacuate if they could, or seek shelter and avoid bush or grassland where it was too late to leave.

More than 2,000 firefighters, many of them volunteers, battled 86 fires across the state, with 38 of them still largely out of control.

A heatwave saw temperatures hit record highs in some parts of the state, creating conditions that officials said were worse than those preceding Victoria's 2009 "Black Saturday" fires, Australia's worst bush fire event that killed 173 people.

"This is the worst day we have seen in the history of New South Wales when it comes to fire danger ratings and fire conditions," Shane Fitzsimmons, the state's rural fire chief, told reporters.

Fitzsimmons said there were unconfirmed reports of homes, farm sheds and machinery being destroyed by fast-moving fires breaking containment lines.

Temperatures climbed above 45 degrees Celsius in some parts. Dry and hot northwesterly winds coming from Australia's desert centre, some up to 75 kilometres an hour, were fanning the bushfires.

There were no reports of injuries, but some firefighters were suffering from heat-related issues.

A 13-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man were charged on Sunday with allegedly starting fires.

A southerly wind change associated with a cold front was forecast to arrive by early evening, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Fitzsimmons said the front would eventually offer relief, but would create volatile conditions as it met the northwesterly flow.

Since Friday, heatwave conditions have caused the cancellation of major sporting events and put pressure on the electricity grid.

A paper mill, a water treatment operations centre and Australia's largest aluminum smelter, Tomago, were among businesses forced to halt operations to conserve energy on Friday. </s> South Australians are preparing for one of the most extreme weather systems to hit the state in decades, bringing drenching rain and damaging winds.

Up to 100mm of rain is forecast for the Adelaide Hills, with the storm expected to hit at about midday on Wednesday. Winds should average 90km/h, whipping up ocean waves to more than 10 metres, but gusts are forecast to be much stronger.

The State Emergency Service says 43,000 sandbags have been distributed and more are to be handed out on Wednesday. SA Power Networks says there will probably be power outages and some could be long.

State cabinet’s emergency management council was also meeting to consider what action would be required as the storm hit and during the cleanup.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the state’s west coast and large parts of the Eyre peninsula and that warning was expected to move east during the day. A flood watch was also in place for the Adelaide Hills.

“This depth of the low, this close to the coast, is very damaging,” said the Bureau of Metereology SA’s director, John Nairn. “It’s a very significant event for South Australia. It’s very rare.”

Nairn said records suggested SA had not experienced a storm so severe for more than 50 years. </s> The town of Lyndoch, northeast of Adelaide, has been flooded overnight, after the town's creek burst its banks.

The SES issued a flood emergency warning after water levels continued to rise.

9NEWS Adelaide will air a special storm bulletin at 8.30am (ACST). Live stream it here.

Two people were rescued from cars and residents urged to leave their properties.

About 60km further north, another emergency warning was activated for towns along the Gilbert River.

"Locations which are impacted include Saddleworth, Tarlee, Manoora, Stockport and Riverton," the SES said in a statement.

Wind gusts of up to 115km/h were recorded at Ceduna just after midnight, and at Cummins at 3am.

A gale warning is in place for the Upper South East Coast, while a strong wind warning exists for Adelaide Metropolitan Waters, Lower West Coast, Central Coast, South Central Coast, Spencer Gulf, Gulf St Vincent, Investigator Strait and Lower South East Coast.

A number of flood warnings are also still in place, however a severe weather warning for the state has now been cancelled.

For a full list of SA weather warnings, visit the BoM website .

Premier Jay Weatherill is expected to visit the state's mid-north today to see the damage caused to the region's electricity infrastructure and speak with locals affected most by Wednesday's big blackout.

Mr Weatherill described the storm as "catastrophic" and said it had involved weather events not seen before in South Australia, "such as twin tornadoes, which ripped through the northern parts of our state".

The intense low pressure system was packing winds of up to 140km/h, among the strongest the city has experienced, prompting an unprecedented warning from police for workers to head home early and stay home amid concerns emergency services might not be able to cope.

Several public schools in regional areas will remain closed, as well as school bus routes in Balaklava, Port Pirie buses, Napperby Primary School Buses and Kadina, Ardrossan and Clare buses.

Meantime, tens of thousands of homes across South Australia were still without power well into the night, despite restoration to much of Adelaide and metropolitan surrounds.

The Marne river near Cambrai. (Supplied: Jody Miltenoff) ()

More than 7000 homes were hit with more outages again yesterday afternoon.

Aberfoyle Park, Kiana, Mount Hope, Sheringa, Melrose, Foul Bay and Flagstaff Hill were among several suburbs where power was out, which SA Power Network has attributed to “storm activity”.

Transmission company ElectraNet said most services had been restored and it hoped to have one of the transmission lines repaired by Sunday, using temporary towers from interstate.

The company also backed assertions from the premier that no energy system in the world could have survived such an event without going down.

The State Emergency Service has responded to more than 600 calls for help.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:

Move vehicles under cover or away from trees;



Secure or put away loose items around your property.



Keep clear of fallen power lines;



Don't drive, ride or walk through flood water;



Stay indoors, away from windows, while conditions are severe.

You can contact SA SES on 132 500 for help. For life-threatening emergencies contact 000. </s> Torrential rain and gale force winds lashed Australia's biggest city of Sydney on Wednesday, flooding streets, railway stations and homes, grounding flights and leaving hundreds of people without electricity.

Police called on motorists to stay off the roads. One person was killed in a car crash and two police officers were seriously injured when a tree fell on them as they helped a stranded driver.

Greg Transell, a local office manager, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that strong winds caused widespread disruption to the tower block office where he works.

"I started to go upstairs to see if there was any damage, and next minute there was an almighty bang and it ripped panels off the roof in the warehouse," said Transell.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Sydney got more than 100 millimetres of rain in just a few hours, a level the country's most populous city would normally get through the whole of November.

"That's the sort of rainfall you'd expect to see once every 100 years," Ann Farrell, the bureau's state manager, told reporters.

The rain offered a welcome respite to farmers who have suffered through a sustained drought in recent months, but it caused major transportation disruptions.

Sydney airport, the country's busiest, said 130 flights had been cancelled or delayed after it was forced to close two of its three runways.

"The storm is pretty intense in and around the airport," Cait Kyann, an airport spokesperson, told Reuters. "We are operating from a single runway, so that means that there are delays and likely some flights will be cancelled."

Ausgrid, the country's biggest electricity network, said the storm had cut power to 8,100 customers in Sydney and the Central Coast area to its north.

By late afternoon, 1,700 homes and businesses remained without power, Ausgrid said.

The storm struck only hours before morning rush hour, transforming some streets into fast-flowing rivers and parks into lakes. Several stranded motorists were plucked from rising floodwaters.

"We are asking all road users to reconsider the need to be on the roads throughout what will be a severe rain event," said Michael Corboy, New South Wales state assistant police commissioner.

In contrast, in Australia's northern state of Queensland, soaring temperatures near 40 C and strong winds exacerbated major bushfires.

Firefighters have been battling for nearly a week to contain more than 130 fires across Queensland, and 8,000 people were ordered to evacuate the city of Gracemere, about 600 kilometres north of the state capital of Brisbane.

"These are unprecedented conditions," said state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. "We have not seen the likes of this." </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption People in vehicles were among those caught up in the floods

Sydney has been deluged by the heaviest November rain it has experienced in decades, causing flash-flooding, traffic chaos and power cuts.

Heavy rain fell throughout Wednesday, the city at one point receiving its average monthly rainfall in two hours.

Officials said dozens of vehicles crashed in the stormy conditions, with winds of up to 90km/h (55mph) also recorded.

At least two deaths have been blamed on the storm.

A 14-year-old boy died in a car accident in Thornleigh, in the north of Sydney on Wednesday morning.

A volunteer with the state's emergency service also died while out on duty, and two police officers were injured after being hit by a falling tree while trying to help Sydney motorists, authorities said.

Images posted online showed downed trees and flooded roads, houses and train stations.

The weather played havoc with commuters in Australia's biggest city, with many transport services cancelled or delayed - including 130 flights at the international airport.

A spokeswoman for Sydney airport said it was forced to operate only one runway after two others were closed due to the storm.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said it was the region's wettest November day since 1984.

"The intensity of that rainfall was phenomenal - 91mm fell in 90 minutes," forecaster Rob Taggart told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Sydney had one month's worth of rain in two hours, meteorologists say

Image copyright EPA Image caption Council workers attempt to clear a drain

The storm centred on coastal parts of New South Wales (NSW), but was reported to have missed many inland regions affected by drought.

Ausgrid, the country's biggest electricity network, said the storm had cut electricity to more than 8,000 customers around the Sydney area.

By Wednesday evening, more than 3,250 homes and businesses were still reported to be without power.

Authorities urged people to try to avoid travelling where possible, as the two main phases of the rain fell around commuting times.

"We cannot stress enough that motorists should never attempt to drive through flood waters or cross flooded causeways," assistant commissioner Michael Corboy of NSW Police said on Wednesday.

The floods are not the only extreme weather currently being experienced in Australia.

In Queensland, further north, thousands have been evacuated as an unprecedented heatwave grips the region, sparking destructive bushfires and dust-storms. </s> SYDNEY: Australia's governing Liberal party has won a tight regional election in South Australia, a victory that could deal a blow to national renewable energy plans.

Saturday's poll pitted the conservative Liberals against the state's ruling centre-left Labor party, while independent Nick Xenophon's new party SA Best failed to win the balance-of-power and have the final say over which major party governs.

Incoming Liberal premier Steven Marshall gave his televised victory speech just after 10 p.m. local time.

"It is a tough job, but I tell you what, I'm really looking forward to it .... It's a new dawn for South Australia."

With 63 percent of votes counted, it was expected the Liberals had won 24 of the 47 lower house seats, giving it a majority to form government in what may have national implications for renewable energy policy.

The vote was seen as a choice between solar and wind energy, pushed by Labor, and coal, backed by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's conservative government.

South Australia, the country's fifth most populous state, has the most wind and solar power but the highest electricity prices in the country.

Its 1.7 million citizens suffered repeated blackouts over the last two years when intermittent wind power was insufficient and back-up power from coal and gas was unavailable.

Outgoing Labor premier Jay Weatherill had announced a plan in February to create a network of 50,000 home solar systems backed by Tesla Powerwall batteries.

Turnbull mocked the state's renewables policy as a "reckless energy experiment" that created the highest electricity prices in the developed world.

The federal government wants to introduce a national energy policy that has no renewable energy target but sets requirements for emissions cuts and reliability. South Australia's Labor government had refused to go along with it.

Energy policy specialist David Blowers at the Grattan Institute think-tank told Reuters last week that if the Liberals were to win in South Australia, the federal government could be expected to get the approval it needs to proceed.

The South Australia Liberal party also used a data-mining computer program to intensify lobbying in marginal seats for the first time in this election.

The i360 app imported from the United States uses information gleaned from social media, polls and surveys to pinpoint vacillating voters' addresses and the issues they care about in key marginal seats so they can be targeted for lobbying.

If the data-driven widget is credited with the Liberals' victory, it may become more widely used in future elections.

The official result of the final vote tally may not be known for several days. </s> SYDNEY
• A dust storm that engulfed parts of Australia's outback has swept through the country's biggest city, sparking public health warnings over poor air quality.

Sydney was blanketed in thick haze yesterday morning as the storm front, caused by strong winds whipping up dust in drought-affected areas, made its way through the city. By late afternoon, skies over the central business district were much clearer.

Air quality was rated as very poor in the east and south-west regions of the city and hazardous in the north-west by the state environment department, which warned people with heart or lung disease to stay indoors.

Mr Adam Morgan of the Bureau of Meteorology said a low pressure system over South Australia and Victoria states had pushed strong winds across areas of western New South Wales that have experienced one of the worst drought seasons in years.

"This is the typical time of year for dust storms through inland Australia, but it is quite rare for dust to reach the east coast," he said.

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet and farmers in parts of the country have been struggling amid severe drought conditions for much of the year. </s> Torrential rain triggered flash flooding that turned streets into rivers in Sydney, Australia's biggest city, on Wednesday, causing major disruptions to the morning commute.

A spokesman for Ausgrid, the nation's biggest electricity network, said the storm had so far left 8,100 homes without power around Sydney and the central coast.

There was chaos on the roads, with at least five stranded motorists needing to be plucked from rising floodwaters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

"The storm is pretty intense in and around the airport," a Sydney airport spokesperson said. "We are operating from a single runway so that means that there are delays and likely some flights will be cancelled."

The central Sydney area had received 90 millimetres of rain, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and state emergency services received dozens of calls for help.

A series of storms was forecast to last through most of the day and ease in the evening, with strong winds continuing.
The state of South Australia suffers widespread blackouts triggered by severe weather conditions.