Power was lost throughout the region when westerly winds up to 120kmh knocked over power poles, blew branches onto power lines, damaged buildings and uprooted trees.

Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Graham Harvey said tens of thousands of dollars was lost by businesses in the black-out which extended throughout the region from Albany to Denmark and Walpole.

Businesses involved in daily consumables like fast food outlets and supermarkets were the worst hit, along with retailers and professional offices.

“The Chamber is particularly impressed by the way Western Power returned the power in such a short time,” Mr Harvey said.

“Crews were working long into the night in the rain. They need to be congratulated for getting the power back on.”

Power was finally restored to all but a few individual homes and businesses throughout the lower Great Southern on Monday.

More than 17,000 homes and businesses lost power, forcing Western Power to bring in line crews from Perth and other country centres to assist.

Along with emergency workers including Albany’s State Emergency Service, they started repairs in dangerous conditions as gusting wind and rain continued for most of the day.

The Albany SES was thrown into full operation from about 8.30am but school holidays restricted the number of volunteers available.

The wind built to full intensity by about 8.45am and was the most severe in Albany for many years.

Weather charts showed a cyclonic pattern as the low progressed slowly along the south coast.

Well-established trees, including a huge pine adjacent Albany Primary School oval, were uprooted, taking out several sections of power lines and making the repair job even harder.

Surprisingly few homes reported major damage, with most losing fences and parts of roofs.

Some homes received major damage on Mt Clarence and at Little Grove.

The strong wind gusts continued until after midday on Friday when they slowly lost intensity.

Earlier in the morning, Walpole and Denmark copped the full brunt of the wind.

Gusts knocked over trees, resulting in many homes being without power for more than 48 hours.

One shop worker at Photorama in Albany was lucky to escape serious injury when a two-metre wide shop window facing Lockyer Avenue was blown out by the force of the wind at 8.45am.

Liz Escott had just moved from a print processing machine when the adjacent plate glass window shattered and the wind sent shards of glass throughout the shop.

Ms Escott said she had to take shelter around a corner with fellow worker Louise Ruffo.

“I’ll tell you, we were scared,” Ms Escott said.

“I’ve never been through anything like that in my life.”

Stock was blown off shelves as the wind howled through in gusts.

Nearby store workers helped the pair, one providing a plastic tarp to cover equipment.

Albany Glass Supplies covered the gaping hole with sheet of thick plywood.

Little Grove was without both electricity and water after a tree was uprooted and damaged water pipes.