Power is gradually being turned back on across parts of South Australia but much of the state remains in darkness after a widespread blackout.

But more wild weather is on the way, with an intense low-pressure system expected to cross the state on Thursday.

Late on Wednesday, emergency services had announced the following:

• Power is continuing to be restored overnight. Metro areas will be first
• People in the state’s north are likely to be without power for “considerably longer than the rest of the state”
• There are no reports of deaths or serious injury
• Adelaide Metro trains are expected to be running from Thursday morning
• All schools in the state will be open, but some still without power may have different programs

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Brett Gage said a severe weather warning remained current for widespread parts of the state, with the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in for a “real buffeting”.

Winds in that region are expected to reach storm force, with predicted gusts of up to 140 kilometres per hour.

“Gale force [winds] about the remainder of the coasts, except for the two South East coasts where we do have strong wind warnings current,” he said.

A flood watch is in place for the state’s Mid North, Mount Lofty Ranges and Adelaide with rain of 30mm to 60mm expected to hit, with some falls of 50mm to 100mm possible.

SA Power Networks spokesman Paul Roberts said power was being restored to some of Adelaide on Wednesday evening, but warned it would be a “gradual process”.

He said people in the Mid North and Eyre Peninsula areas should prepare for extended power outages.

“That could well go into the the early hours of [Thursday] if not longer. This would be putting some stress on communications and I really recommend to people they minimise their use of mobile phones.”

The statewide outage happened after severe weather knocked out three transmission lines and 22 towers.

Mr Roberts said the storm front expected on Thursday is a big concern for the electricity network.

Optus and some Vodafone networks are also down across the state.

Mr Roberts said some equipment had been damaged around Blyth in the state’s Mid North.

“There was some kind of mini-storm event, or cyclone event, there that’s resulted in damage and that’s affecting customers around the region.

“We have a substation there that would supply out to several areas.”

– Weatherzone

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