My daughter in Australia, just posted this story. OMG! (I tried to share but it wouldnt work so I copied and posted.) SHE WRITES: So I had just sat down to a cold beer yesterday afternoon in the beer garden at the Rumpus Room (it having been a scorching afternoon, and having just sat in the shade at the Lizard in West End eating some late lunch), when I looked up and thought, Holy mother of nature, Ive got about 5 seconds before we get hit by some pretty ferocious looking weather system. It looked like a black wall, descending on us, and at this point it must have been only a few hundred meters away, and whispy bits of mist swirled around the front of it. Not even a drop of rain yet. Sunny still to the North East. So I quickly picked up honeys water bowls, my bag and was untying honey when the thing she was tied to was blown over and luckily one of the bar staff grabbed it while I untied the dog and went under the cover of the large awning area where people were standing out of the weather. A couple of minutes later, the wind started pummeling us from the South and West, a branch fell off the tree in front of us, and visibility was reduced to only a few metres in front. All signs of human life had dissappeared from the streets rapidly, as people grabbed whatever they could that was able to be moved to safety. We could not see the other side of the road. The giant fig tree in front of us looked like a piece of seaweed being swirled around in ocean waves. Within moments, wheely bins were spinning and floating around on top of the flash floods in the street. Then the hale came. It started small and very quickly became golf ball sized, and flying through the air horizontally, like bullets, really, like a war zone. I watched street signs bend under the forces of the wind and hale. Another tree came down just up the road. The thunder exploded all around, accompanied by flying hale and other projectiles. A very disorientated and flustered crow flapped around in the beer garden, trying to find a safe place to weather the storm. Then without warning the wind swung around and started pelting us from in front (until then we had been sheltered on the lee side of the building) and the bar staff yelled, everybody inside and they all crowded in and shut the doors. I looked at honey, made a momentary decision and jumped through the low window into the pub, with the dog, (not usually allowed but nobody said anything). It all only lasted about 5-10 minutes, but when we all emerged from the shelter of the pub after the winds had passed and looked around, the damage done in such a short time was unbelievable. Just where we could see, several branches and trees had fallen, street signs were bent, shop windows broken, car windscreens smashed, every car covered in dents and debris was everywhere. Shop keepers were already out with mops on the other side of the street, cleaning up. 2 massive branches were removed from the beer garden I had been sitting in moments before. I looked up the street and saw cars swerving to get around a tree that had fallen in the road. I thought maybe I should call emergency services but then thought, I think they have got enough to deal with (sirens were already blaring all over the place) so I called out anyone want to help me move that tree off the road? and within a few minutes, with the help of about ten other pub goers, the tree was safely moved off the road. We finished our beers and went to check the van, which was relatively unscathed, just a couple of broken light covers and lots of dents. The windscreen was remarkably intact. On the way to the van, we saw the Uniting Church on Vulture st had lost its roof (pictured below) and had taken out power lines on the way down, which had left most of West End without power. A few conversations with people in the street showed just about every person to have a story of narrow misses and destruction. One lady said her house was okay, aside from many broken windows, but had an extra roof on top...her neighbours. Another told of huddling under a table with her small child as the ORANGE sized, horizontal hale, and shards of broken window glass from many broken windows, shot through the house, with force enough to drive glass into walls. This was a common tale. The reports are saying that what we experienced was a super cell storm, with orange sized hale and wind speeds of over 140km/h (cyclonic speeds). There was no warning. The weather reports had mentioned thunder storms, but nobody had any idea the fury they were in for until it hit. The damage caused in such a short time was unbelievable to witness. For a while after, many people were just standing outside their shops and houses, staring at the devastation and telling each other stories. All of a sudden, everybody knew everybody, all social barriers were brought to irrelevance as we all realized how nature can put us in our places at any moment, without warning. So well done nature, for reminding those around the world who just visited Brisbane for the G20 where climate change was not to be spoken of, because jobs and economics were more important, that extreme weather events like this, which are predicted to become more frequent and severe, can cause all business to stop, destruction of property on a massive scale throughout a capital city, insurance companies inundated with claims, the SES, and other emergency services stretched and unable to cope with the sheer number of incidents, downed power, trees blocking roads, roofs blown off, people pinned under trees etc. so that the army must be mobilized into the war zone. And all this in less than 10 minutes. I bet they could use that 20Bn dollars they spent on the G20 event now aye? Ask any business in Brisbane if the economy is more important than climate change now, and they will undoubtedly tell you the two issues are inseparably intertwined. When nature gets angry, everything stops and everything becomes simply about survival. I am extremely thankful for being able to witness natures power in such a way and come out remarkably unscathed. Sending my love and support to all those in Brisbane who are still putting their homes, cars and businesses back together after yesterday. And extremely grateful their have yet to be any reports of deaths. I can safely say I have never experienced anything on this scale of weather in my life. I was quite blown away.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 02:03:55 +0000
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