I have a fascination with cyclones or hurricanes, ever since the late 90's when we lived in Port Hedland (far far north of Perth, its about a two day drive) and lived through a couple. All the cyclones we lived through were still not as terrifying as that earthquake we experienced in Penang last year, boy i really thought my time was up waiting for that tsunami. Anyway again i digress, back to cyclones.
There you are its hot hot hot usually about 43degrees Celsius then the clouds start turning grey but its still hot, then the rain comes and rain like you've never seen before (that incidentally is why no houses have gutters in Port Hedland) and its still hot.
before all this you watch the flags that are on every flag pole in town, blue first which means get prepared.
Full tank of petrol
Lots of water
fill the baths with water
go food shopping (and that's a story for another day just ask me about sausages)
bring inside anything that is outside that could be blown as a projectile which includes bbq's, tables, chairs etc.
make sure you have torches and a radio operated battery oops battery operated radio.
Then we go to yellow
pick up kids from school Yay for them
Andrew home from work
everything closes
all the while its getting really really windy and you think the car is going to be blown of the road, its raining like unbelievable, lakes form where there were fields on one particular cyclone some crazy person went and got out his surfboard with a sail on it and was sailing past the roads in this big field of water that had appeared in a couple of hours.
then we go to red
police and SES and fire brigade drive around sounding alarms and making sure we're all inside, by this time i am excited and scared at the same time. We listen to the radio for updates that come every half an hour, if its night time Andrew and kids usually went to bed. Ahh not me, to scared the whole house is rattling you think its going to take off, you can feel the pressure in the house so you go and open the window a little so the house doesn't explode, i pray the windows wont shatter as surely the wind is going to blow right through them. (but no they a specially designed cyclone friendly glass)
..and then all of a sudden it stops just like that and its eerily quiet. If it was daytime we usually went out the front and talked to all the neighbours and checked out the damage. But its not over that's the eye of the storm so back inside we go and wait for the other side of the cyclone to pass us. Once we were on red for two days.
Then the sirens start and its all clear, back to work/normal/routine/school.
Did you know that after a cyclone you can find the most amazing shells on the beach
and i must add that we were never hurt or had property damaged in any of the cyclones we went through. Very lucky as we did go through a category five.
anyway i suppose you would like a couple of photos
this is from the year 1999 and one of our first cyclones
Just thought i would share a bit of our time up north with you.
If you are an Aussie Happy Australia day and to everyone else happy Saturday.
xx
There you are its hot hot hot usually about 43degrees Celsius then the clouds start turning grey but its still hot, then the rain comes and rain like you've never seen before (that incidentally is why no houses have gutters in Port Hedland) and its still hot.
before all this you watch the flags that are on every flag pole in town, blue first which means get prepared.
Full tank of petrol
Lots of water
fill the baths with water
go food shopping (and that's a story for another day just ask me about sausages)
bring inside anything that is outside that could be blown as a projectile which includes bbq's, tables, chairs etc.
make sure you have torches and a radio operated battery oops battery operated radio.
Then we go to yellow
pick up kids from school Yay for them
Andrew home from work
everything closes
all the while its getting really really windy and you think the car is going to be blown of the road, its raining like unbelievable, lakes form where there were fields on one particular cyclone some crazy person went and got out his surfboard with a sail on it and was sailing past the roads in this big field of water that had appeared in a couple of hours.
then we go to red
police and SES and fire brigade drive around sounding alarms and making sure we're all inside, by this time i am excited and scared at the same time. We listen to the radio for updates that come every half an hour, if its night time Andrew and kids usually went to bed. Ahh not me, to scared the whole house is rattling you think its going to take off, you can feel the pressure in the house so you go and open the window a little so the house doesn't explode, i pray the windows wont shatter as surely the wind is going to blow right through them. (but no they a specially designed cyclone friendly glass)
..and then all of a sudden it stops just like that and its eerily quiet. If it was daytime we usually went out the front and talked to all the neighbours and checked out the damage. But its not over that's the eye of the storm so back inside we go and wait for the other side of the cyclone to pass us. Once we were on red for two days.
Then the sirens start and its all clear, back to work/normal/routine/school.
Did you know that after a cyclone you can find the most amazing shells on the beach
and i must add that we were never hurt or had property damaged in any of the cyclones we went through. Very lucky as we did go through a category five.
anyway i suppose you would like a couple of photos
If you are an Aussie Happy Australia day and to everyone else happy Saturday.
xx
2 comments :
WOW, that was some story. I would be so scared too, I hate when the wind is that strong and the house shakes. Great layout to go with the descriptions!
There was an earthquake when my mom was pregnant with me, she slept thru it and was shocked when she woke up and saw all the damage around the neighborhood. Thankfully our house was fine, few weeks later I was born.
When I was in high school we had another earthquake and I was at lunch and the trophy cases fell off the walls and crashed and our lunches all fell off the tables and some windows cracked. I was so scared. My mom came and picked me up and we stayed inside watching movies all day.
I have been very lucky and hope to stay that way. Can't imagine how poeple who have had it worst then me and lose everything. So sad.
Thanks for sharing!
Love everything about this LO...cool background paper, cool story, cool embellishments. I was in the Newcastle earthquake, so I know how scary they can be! Cyclones are another story altogether! Thanks for sharing...I learnt something new today!
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