Adelaide, Sep 29 (IANS): New storms were expected to hit South Australia on Thursday after thunderstorms left the entire state without electricity for several hours.

A low pressure system will continue to affect the south-central region of Australia after South Australia was hit on Wednesday by winds of up to 140 km per hour, knocking over more than 20 power-transmission towers, EFE news reported.

About 80,000 lighting strikes were recorded; some of them hitting the state's electricity infrastructure and generators.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) expects these conditions to occur again today in this state, where some 90,000 of the 900,000 homes remain without power this morning, said Premier Jay Weatherill, at a news conference broadcasted on television.

The BoM described the storm as a once in 50 years event and that it expects gale force winds with gusts between 90 to 120 kph in some parts of the state today.

The authorities managed to restore power to parts of the metropolitan area of Adelaide, the state's capital, late last night, but warned that the power outage could last several days in the northern area of the state.

The storm caused abundant downpours which forced emergency services to issue an alert for risk of flooding in several areas of the state, including state-capital Adelaide.