Ex Tropical Cyclone Oswald was nasty as he traveled down the east coast of Australia, tornadoes ripped through towns destroying everything in their path. My friends in Burrum Heads had this misfortune of being in the firing line, a house a few doors down from them was lifted and landed on their garage. I know she wont mind that I share her photos. The lovely little town where I spent a wonderful weekend with friends whale watching and photographing was destroyed by a tornado, old beach houses damaged beyond repair, caravans blown apart....lucky no-one was killed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rqqzy/sets/72157632647034942/
I remember as a child being in Cyclone Anthea when living in Townsville, I was about 8, we waited out the cyclone in the bathtub with a mattress over us. At the time it was scary and exciting at the same time. As a child you don't understand the terror the adults are feeling. I know better now and I appreciate how my parents sheltered us from the damage and the grief.
10 years ago a tornado ripped through Glass House Mountains, I understand the terror RQQZY went through, although there was no damage to us 10 years ago, we lost trees and the house 2 doors down had a huge gum tree through their roof. The noise of the wind and the tree screaming as they break and fly around is something you can't imagine unless you have heard it.
Sunday night the wind was a bad as I have heard it in 10 years, after hearing the reports from Burrum Heads and the other 5 tornado's leaving a trail of destruction I did not sleep well. I expected to get up to a similar sight of carnage in my little town. Luckily we where spared, a lot of trees came down and there was leaf litter all over town.
Then the power went out, we have had blackouts before, they happen all the time, we can cope for a few hours with out power....it is 8 am, still 12 hours before dark. The girls were great, they got out board games and cards and played all day. We planned a BBQ dinner and set up some candles. When the power was still out the next morning I called Energex for an update, 'yes we are aware of a power outage in your area it will be restored as soon as possible'. My phone is running out of charge, the 3G internet is no longer working, I am relying on text messages to keep me up with the events of the floods and storms. We went to town to get some more ice and were surprised that the shops had power, we asked when it had been restored to the town, we were told it had never gone out....it was only our little pocket of streets.
52 hours without electricity, enough to drive you crazy. The girls were missing their computers, HWMBO was missing the mindless TV he watches to unwind. I was missing out on my new work station. For months I have been begging for a place to work and call my own, I was sick of setting up on the kitchen table only to have to pack up every time we wanted a meal, so I got my office space....I edited one photo before the power went off.
I am so pleased to have electricity again. I take it for granted most of the time but I love that I can.
I don't have many photos to edit as I haven't taken many with the weather being crap and my health being worse.
This is Daughter #3 after helping HWMBO move anything that could be problem in the wind. She is very happy to get wet so it was had to get her to pose and look longingly out the window. I need to get at least one photo over the weekend for my 52 week challenge.
Week 4
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