Strong winds ripped apart the roof of a Canberra building on Monday night with 22 ACT SES volunteers preparing for redeployment to assist their NSW colleagues.
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Firefighters removed a 10 x 15 metre piece of roof off Canberra Avenue near the Wentworth Avenue and Sturt Avenue roundabout on Tuesday morning after a partial roof collapse.
An Emergency Services Agency spokeswoman said about 15 x 20 metres of the DHL building roof had also collapsed internally.
Fire and Rescue crews were called to the scene about 6.40am on Tuesday and used a Bronto Aerial Unit to assess damage to the building near Leeton Street.
The spokeswoman said crews conducted an aerial and internal observation of the collapse.
A large part of the building had been cordoned off and WorkSafe ACT were assessing the damage.
Some businesses in the multi-occupancy building have limited access to the building.
A DHL spokeswoman said the express mail delivery company was working with emergency services to contain and assess the damage.
"At this stage, no freight has sustained any damage and no one has been injured," she said.
"Contingency planning is underway to minimise disruption to services. Courier pick-ups and deliveries will continue as usual, however the Canberra reception is currently closed."
Monday's windy weather was strong enough to topple a tree on to Southern Cross Drive at O'Reilly Street and cause a fallen branch to damage a house in Holt.
An Emergency Services Agency spokesman said the ACT SES had received 61 calls since 9am on Monday, mostly for minor damage as a result of the windy conditions.
More than 1700 homes were without power in parts of Canberra on Monday after wild winds pushed trees and branches onto power lines, the majority of outages in Canberra's north.
Canberrans woke to another chilly morning Tuesday with a cool 9 degrees as of 7.30am and wind gusts reaching 48 km/h, after shivering through apparent temperatures below 6 degrees on Monday, plus wind gusts of more than 50 km/h and a dusting of snow over the Brindabellas.
Meanwhile, the NSW coast was battered by rain and damaging winds overnight with a severe weather warning remaining in place on Tuesday for destructive winds, heavy rainfall and damaging surf in the Metropolitan, Mid North Coast, Hunter and Illawarra forecast districts.
The 22 volunteers will be deployed to either north Sydney or the Hunter region on Wednesday morning to relieve NSW crews.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services Joy Burch said ACT volunteers regularly provided assistance to other jurisdictions when needed.
"Our thoughts are with the residents of these towns who have been impacted greatly and also with the families who have tragically been affected with the loss of loved ones," she said.
"Operations like this is what our ACT SES crews are trained for and work so well at."
Canberra can expect milder weather from Wednesday including a forecast top of 18 degrees and a top of 20 degrees on Thursday and Friday.
