Cyclone Yasi

In January, just two weeks after we moved into our new home, our area was expected to be hit by the largest cyclone in Australia's recorded history. It was coming directly for us, and then at the last minute shifted north to hit Tully and Cardwell.

In the day or two before the cyclone, Dave and I spent our time preparing, in case the power went out. Which it did.

We stocked up on canned food, prepared the medicine kit, candles, charged all the batteries, rounded up portable radios, and filled the generator with petrol (plus stocked up on petrol at the servo -- had to wait in line a half hour to fill the tanks). And  queued up with everyone else for beer (This is Australia after all).

The news stations kept us all informed, but faintly alarmed. We wondered if we weren't being silly for not evacuating. Our house was just at the edge of the projected storm surge, but since it's a two story, we thought we'd probably be fine. Probably. Hopefully. Oh, boy.

Comparison between projected Yasi storm path/damage with
other devastating cyclones -- scary, because Katrina and Tracy
were comparable sized storms --- Oh, we are going
 to be so flattened!

But, as it turned out we didn't get hit too badly. We were prepared to wait up all night for the cyclone to hit (for some reason they always come at night, which is way scarier). We had the tv on, watching the news, and at 10:45 p.m. the power went out. Then the storm got louder, and louder.

The old house groaned like each nail was being twisted and pulled. From time to time a tree limb bashed against the side of the house. We turned on the radio to hear how bad the storm surge was going to be. In seaside towns, if a cyclone hits, it blows the tide up onto the beach and fills all the local creeks and rivers, causing flooding. If it got really bad here, we might have to climb on our roof.

Did I mention that I can't swim? At all. As in, sink like a rock.

But, all was well, and the tidal surge didn't get anywhere near our house. Whew!

In the morning we had a peek out our windows to check out the damage. Astonishingly, our skinny palm trees stood up to the storm, and only lost a few fronds. The low side of our yard was a bit flooded, but nothing major.

Well, I guess we won't have to water for a while

However, out the back of the house, trees took a real beating.

The back stairs are here somewhere

By a strange quirk of fate, Dave had just purchased a chain saw 3 days before the cyclone. So, with the help of the kids, he unburied the back yard.

We were very lucky, if the storm had stayed true to its original course,  we would have received a fair amount of flooding.

In town, near the Strand

So, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we've made it through the worst of the cyclone season for 2011.

************************
Here's a cute message from Cairns.

Image from abc.net.au

Woodman spare that tree

Shortly after we moved into this house in January, a man from the electric company came by and said that one of our trees needed to be taken down, because in the case of a big storm it might fall and take down some power lines.

During cyclone Yasi, January 2011

Well it seemed no later than he made that pronouncement, and painted a big "R" on the side of the tree on the the right (R meaning remove, we imagined), in came a BIG cyclone, the biggest our town had seen in a century.

If it had hit us as was projected, it would have been a category 5 (very, very bad), but it passed north of us, and was only (ONLY) a cat 3-4 when it got to our place. Our palm tree swayed and groaned and dropped palm fronds, but restrained itself from falling on the powerlines.

Other trees around town were not so lucky.

Image from 9MSN.com.au

Finally, the tree man came today to take down our palm tree.

Bryn says "what can we do with all this stuff, we could make a fort!"

In case you ever wondered what the inside of a palm tree looks like, its kinda pulpy. With a squishy center.

The games children play

My two youngest boys are 10 and 14 years old, and sometimes when I listen to them play it reminds me of the games I used to play with my brothers when we were little. Life in Queensland is a lot different than Oregon, but the fun of splashing in mud puddles is still the same.

So, for a blast from the past, here I am with my two younger brothers in typical Molalla attire. Rugged up from head to toe, for a nice spring day.

Eric, Jimmy and I down by the creek (circa 1972)

I HATED those cats eye glasses, even then. Such a fashion victim.

A fact that most people won't know is that the  mascot for my old country grade school was the mighty...mountain gopher. Someone obviously had a sense of humor. My girlfriends and I that played on the school volleyball team called ourselves the "gopher-ettes". Luckily by the time I started high school it had been updated to mountain lions. Its hard to have the killer instinct for sports when you're named after a small, hairy, bucktoothed rodent.

Image from Pacific Environmental Consultants

It's curtains for you

When we moved into our house we discovered that it had heaps of windows with great views, but no curtains. So, bit by bit I've been making curtains. This is the dining room window that looks over the back stairs. 

Two hand-carved crocodiles from Papua New Guinea stand guard.

Gone for a soldier

We now a have soldier at our house, well a cadet really. Donnelly has joined the Australian Air Force Cadets. He's excited about it because in addition to drill, more drill, marching, etc. he will eventually get to do rappelling, firing Army guns and lots of dirty, mucky camping.

Nice biccies

Dave has taken over the grocery shopping in order to let me have more time to finish my PhD thesis. One "nice" benefit to this is that he buys cool stuff that I didn't even know existed.

One such thing is Nice biscuits. They're a coconut flavoured cookie sprinkled with sugar on top. Yum!

*************

However, in the not so nice category --- it was raining today, and I forgot turn the headlights off on my car. Dead battery. Or as the nice lady at the office said as she scrounged around in her trunk (boot) for jumper cables "Oh, your car's flat, eh?"

Makes it sound like someone let the air out of my battery.