April 2, 2008
It started with a beautiful sunrise.
Warm, calm, peaceful.
It started with a beautiful sunrise.
Warm, calm, peaceful.
Standing in our backyard watching this sunrise it made you think, could the weather forecasters be wrong?
We'd heard they recently installed a larger window.
By 1pm everything had changed. Houses without power, trees falling, power lines coming down, a dust storm that anyone under 30 has never seen before and sadly, tragic accidents.
The bay had a 2m swell.
"Yo Bodi, come to the bay for a surf man. Nah, seriously. Yeah, just watch out for some yacht shaped water hazards."
Eltham is known for its trees. And also for a council that doesn't like to cut them down under almost any circumstances. Nature took it out of their hands.
We'd heard they recently installed a larger window.
By 1pm everything had changed. Houses without power, trees falling, power lines coming down, a dust storm that anyone under 30 has never seen before and sadly, tragic accidents.
The bay had a 2m swell.
"Yo Bodi, come to the bay for a surf man. Nah, seriously. Yeah, just watch out for some yacht shaped water hazards."
Eltham is known for its trees. And also for a council that doesn't like to cut them down under almost any circumstances. Nature took it out of their hands.
Ralph and Jack were beside themselves with worry.
After 9 hours without power and amazingly only 2 people had died, the weather started to settle down. On a tour of our suburb the damage was far worse than we had expected. No traffic lights, no shops open, no lights on in houses or the streets .. a deathly silence.
Then something to put it all into perspective.
We spent the night in darkness around the chiminea.
We cooked up a well balanced dinner of bacon and eggs.
We sat and thought about how lucky we were to have avoided major damage and to always respect nature.
Then something to put it all into perspective.
We spent the night in darkness around the chiminea.
We cooked up a well balanced dinner of bacon and eggs.
We sat and thought about how lucky we were to have avoided major damage and to always respect nature.
Posts
10 comments:
Wow! I'm glad you all made it out of that storm okay!
Hi Narelle, it's Yovonne (Sulien) from over at Joe Mallozi's blog. I read your reply to his post there and just wanted to say that I'm glad to hear that you and your family are all right. I hope they get the power back on and the roads and shops open soon. I'll keep you folks in Melbourne in my thoughts. We've gotten similar wind storms up here on the Pacific Northwest coast twice in the past two years and I know how devastating they can be.
Sneaking a peek at your photos. Awesome! Thanks for sharing with Joe's Bloggers. sylvia
Hey guys,
Thanks for coming and having a look at the pics and thank you for your thoughts.
All of my family made it out safe, and other than the garage roof, most things are still in one piece. Except for the trampoline, that's still in the front yard in three pieces.
It's going to take some time to clean up, but the echo of duelling chain saws running 15 hours a day hopefully means it won't take too long.
Cheers, Narelle
PS: Joe's blog has a great network of people :)
Hi there Narelle, its shiningwit from Mallozzi's place. I had to check out your pics and what amazing pics they are too!
Glad you all survived and may I just say you live in an amazing part of the world. In spite of natures temper it looks beautiful, I'd kill for regular sunrises like that.
BTW. I always look forward to reading your posts. you have a talent for entertaining!
Hi Narelle,
It's Chev here. I made it out OK too. When I got home an enormous branch fell down across the road right outside my place. The SES made it out at 11pm with their chainsaw to cut it up and get it off the road. I'm glad I wasn't home when it fell. Would have been an almighty crash.
It was so lucky no-one was parked outside my house like they often are. It would have smashed the car.
Cool pics. I love the sunrise. What kind of camera do you have?
Cheers, Chev
Narelle, Yikes, what an experience! It's good to hear you and yours are okay.
-ptarmigan, who forgot her blogger password (from Joe Mallozzi's blog)
Hey Chev,
Glad to hear all of yours are safe and well. Keep thinking of the families that did lose someone.
Very lucky there was nothing near that tree out the front of your place.
You will laugh at my camera. The sunrise shots were taken on a 7 year old 2MP camera pulled out from the draw! I ruined my good camera a few weeks ago. Sand + Camera = no more photos.
Cheers.
Shiningwit - thanks for the kind comments. I'm blushing.
And right back at ya. You're always a name I look out for :)
Shiningwit - we do live in an amazing part of the world and I never tire of the sunrises from where we live. I have a collection of sunrise photo's and have them around our house.
The strange thing about Australia though, everything native has the potential to kill you!
Watch the oceans; sharks, watch the rivers; crocs, don't eat that berry; it'll kill you, and most importantly do not pat any native animal - they look all cute and cuddly on the outside but they all have the ability to rip your eyeballs out! But they are still cute :)
Post a Comment