So, What Happened On The Weekend?

I was away from home in Brisbane over the weekend, after spending a week visiting with my son and grandchildren.  I was due to hop on a plane late on Sunday afternoon and fly back home for the last week of the term holidays.  On Sunday morning I was wakened by a phone call from my hubby who was excitedly telling me about the wind and the rain that was battering our house. Cyclone Ita was visiting our city.

We'd had a pretty sedate cyclone season up to that point, with little action here on the east coast.  When I had left home to head south there was a small cyclone out in the Pacific Ocean many, many kilometres to the north-east and it wasn't expected to do much at all.  But during the week I was away, Tropical Cyclone Ita decided she wanted to play.  In a matter of days she was suddenly looking like the strongest storm of 2014.

She had formed as a tropical low near the Solomon Islands way back at the beginning of the month. Then she just spent time hanging around the Pacific Ocean for over a week.  She had slowly intensified and started leisurely moving closer to far northern Queensland.  Nothing much to worry about at the time.

But then, Ita decided she wanted to play.  On April 9th she had intensified to a Category 3 cyclone, and rapidly intensified over the next day or so.



By late Thursday last week, Ita was rated Category 5, which is the highest rating for a tropical cyclone.  Things didn't look good!   She was giving north Queensland a bit of a scare.

Of course, I was blissfully unaware of all this as I spent time with my grandchildren and not spending time paying attention to news reports or weather reports.

 

Ita travelled towards the northern coastline and made landfall on Friday evening at Cape Flattery, about 500 kms to the north of my home of Townsville.  Ita hit as a Category 4 with destructive winds up to 230 kilometres per hour near its centre.  The wind caused a fair bit of destruction around that area.  She dumped a lot of rain and caused quite extensive localised flooding.

Crops were lost. Houses were damaged and towns cut off as they were surrounded by flood water. I did manage to catch a report of this on the news on Saturday night.   I fully expected Cyclone Ita to simply weaken at this point and move inland, as is the case with many cyclones once they make landfall.

But Ita wasn't quite finished.  Instead of weakening and moving inland, she weakened and moved down the coastline.  Thankfully she ran out of puff and was downgraded to a Category 1, but as she made her way down the coast, she dumped an awful lot of rain.  The deluge hammered the region between Port Douglas and Innisfail, with more than 300 mm of rain falling in less than 24 hours.

 

By late Saturday, Ita had moved past Cairns and was on the way south to Townsville.  As I said at the beginning of this post, I was in Brisbane during all of this and my hubby rang me early on Sunday morning to inform me of the conditions here in Townsville.  I was supposed to get on a plane late Sunday afternoon to return home, but the chances of that happening looked slim.  While I waited it out down in Brisbane, our little rural suburb here at Alligator Creek bore the brunt of the weather Ita bought.

Alligator Creek runs through one side of our outlying suburb.  It rose around two metres in just thirty minutes early on Sunday morning.  The creek broke its banks and the wall of water rushed through the low-lying sections of the suburb down on the flats along the creek, downing fences, collecting lots of debris, carrying away animals and inundating properties.

Apparently our suburb had received 211 mm in 24 hours, and by Sunday morning the water had no where else to go as the ground was saturated.  The speed with which the creek rose, though, took everyone by surprise.  The old locals here said it was the worst flooding they had seen in thirty years and they had never seen the water come up so quickly.

The worst spot was down at the bottom of the road we take out of the foothill area where we live.  Just to explain:  we live on one of the foothills right at the back of our rural suburb.  There is only one road into our little neighbourhood.  The road runs along the flats and then we turn to drive up into the foothills. 

The link below shows a video clip taken by a neighbour driving down from the foothill to Alligator Creek Road ... the way out of our area of the suburb.  Some of the clip is sideways and hard to view, but do wait until the end and you will see the extent of the flooding.  People who have lived here for over twenty years have never ever seen anything like it before!

The end of Alligator Creek Road turns into a river

 Source of video:  Kerry Sutton sharing video by Elizabeth Cashman

Now, of course, my trusty camera was with me in Brisbane so my husband did not manage to get any photos of all this.  I have however put together a few of the photos that were posted on our local suburb's Facebook page and I will share those with you.

Source of all photos in this collage:   Alligator Creek Community News

Thankfully the rain has started to abate by around midday and the water started to drain away in the afternoon.  My flight did take off late on Sunday afternoon.  It was the first flight to head north that day, as all previous flights had been cancelled.  The pilot took us inland to avoid the still moving Cyclone Ita as she headed further south along the coastline, and all in all the flight was only a little bumpy.

By the time I had arrived in Townsville Sunday night, the skies were clear, there was no rain falling at all and the road into our suburb was open again.  There was evidence of the wall of water though.  Lots of fences were down and the fences that were still standing were covered in debris.  There were objects strewn beside the yard and left lying in front yards. 

It's definitely a lesson learnt about just how quickly Mother Nature can turn.

Still Waiting for Decent Rain ... Even The Cyclone Didn't Help All That Much.

We had a little cyclone action this week.  On Thursday we were waiting with bated breath to see where Tropical Cyclone Dylan was headed. At 1.00 pm it looked like he was aiming straight for us.  It was only a Category 1 at that stage, and we were all looking forward to the arrival of some really decent heavy rain at long last.

Thursday afternoon at work was a little wild and woolly.  The winds whipped up significantly and it started raining quite heavily.  Everyone gave up walking between school blocks with an umbrella as they were turned inside out in an instant as soon as you stepped outside the classroom door. I drove home from work, along the highway, very slowly because visibility was low.  The rain was so very pleasant though.

By 4.00 pm the forecast was that TC Dylan would cross a little further south of us, and it might make Category 2 just before landfall.  As the sun set late Thursday afternoon, we stowed the courtyard garden potted plants in the safety of the alley between the house and the pergola.  We took down the shadecloth sails out in the courtyard.  We strode around the yard one last time making sure there was nothing that could pose a danger if it became a flying missile.  Then we bunkered down inside the house waiting to see what would happen.


Well, in the end, Dylan was a bit of a dud for us.  The rain had stopped at about 7.00 pm, and the wind dropped to nothing at around the same time.  The rest of the night was still and quiet, and not a drop of rain fell.

Dylan made landfall early on Friday morning about 270 kms south, near Bowen, as Category 2.   Down there and in the surrounding area, TC Dylan certainly uprooted a few trees, blew a few things over and caused some localised flooding, but that was the extent of it. 

Now I don't want to sound as if I was wishing for a cyclone, because obviously they can be horrid destructive forces of nature, as we found out almost exactly two years ago.  But ... we could have done with some of the heavy rain that was associated with a Category 1/2 cylcone.  Apart from an afternoon of heavy showers on Thursday, we didn't get any of the really good stuff. 

The next day dawned fairly bright and clear.  There were a couple of grey clouds, but they cleared pretty quickly.  All those teachers and students wishing that schools would be closed on Friday, were bitterly disappointed. 

The sun came out and shone brightly and happily for the rest of the day.

The raindrops had evaporated overnight, although the plants did all look a little brighter.

There were a few Eucalypt branches scattered about from the high winds, but that was the only evidence there had been a cyclone threat the day before.

So as February begins, we're now in the midst of a very, very dry wet season.  Considering that our wet season can begin in December and last until early April, this wet season is not looking all that promising. 

Our rainfall total in December was around 9.4 mms  (0.4 of an inch).  Our average is 130 mm (5 inches).
The rainfall total in January was around 74.7 mms  (2.9 inches)   The average is 276.5 (10.9 inches).

Another cyclone has developed today, but it's a lot further south and out to sea.  Tropical Cyclone Edna is expected to remain offshore and not make landfall at all.  She's expected to weaken completely by Sunday morning.  There does seem to be some activity behind her, but at the moment that doesn't look like it will eventuate into anything much either.

So, while it seems our cyclone season has certainly begun, we're left wondering just when the true wet season will begin! 

Weathering A Yasi!

Well Cyclone Yasi has been and gone. It crossed the coast as Category 5 (the highest rating for a cyclone) about 160 kilometres to the north of us. Yasi was huge … the eye alone was around 35 kilometres across.  The main part, including the eye, stretched close to 500 kilmetres wide!   We were within the circle of destructive winds just outside the eye or centre and we had a wild ride on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

TC Yasi superimposed on the U.S. ... gives a visual about just what a monster it was!

Here's some tips about weathering a cyclone:
1.  Have plenty of water supplies.  Fill the bathtub, fill huge 5 gallon water containers, fill any spare bottle you have around the house.  It's surprising just how much you will appreciate your efforts in storing water when there's no running water for days and days!  (Special note:  you'll need quite a bit of water to help flush the loo!!!!)  I recommend the 5 gallon containers as they're so much easier to heave around!

2.  Make sure you have a source of power such as a little generator.  It is so surprising just how boring and long the day can be when there's no power for your various modes of entertainment.  We've been without electricity now for four days and it feels like a lifetime.  I'm able to blog tonight because we took the chance to fire up the generator for a few hours instead of the hour in the morning and the hour in the evening that has been the routine for the last few days.

3.  Have plenty of dried and non-perishable food items in your pantry!  After an exhausting day of clearning dropped branches and dragging them metres to the fire-pit, the last thing you feel like doing is cooking up a huge meal on the barbeque at the end of the day!  It's soooo much easier just to boil some water and add it to something that resembles rice and then just chuck a steak on the barbie for some added sustenance.

4.  Sit out the scary cyclonic winds with friends.  Stay out on the back verandah until you can't stand the rain and wind lashing anymore ... and the little branches flying past perhaps add a little bit of fright to the experience ... and make sure you have a wee drink or ten!  Left-over bottles of champagne from a mother-in-law's milestone birthday come in very, very handy!
(No, my friend is not trying to get internet access, she's just playing some music on her lap-top to lighten the mood.  Bob's 'Blowin In The Wind' is a great choice!)

5.  Ensure that the battery-operated source of all knowledge about the cyclone and how it's progressively raging closer and closer to you comes from something cute and adorable.  The duck of doom was most appropriate as our one and only source of contact from the outside world in the wee small scary hours!  Pay homage to the duck of doom and bad things might be averted!

6.  On the night of the raging storm, make sure you cook loads of tasty food.  I highly recommend big pots of spaghetti ... quite easy to cook using a little portable stove when you lose power and spaghetti tastes great even when you're sitting in a dining room surrounded by what seems like a whole fleet of jet engines roaring all around you!  It also goes very well with lots of robust red wine!

7.  When you hear some frightening clunks and crashes from outside don't whatever you do, try to go out to see what it was!  Your face will never recover from the wind and rain lashing it receives while you're being so inquisitive.  Far better just to wake up the next morning and take a wonderful stroll of discovery outside when you can actually stand up straight and walk!

8.  Have plenty of fun board and card games to play ... Coon Can (also known as Gin Rummy) is a great one to play or Taboo!  It's something to keep your mind off the noise happening all around you.  It's also a great source of diversion when you find you just can't sleep!

9.  Ensure you service your chain saw.  That will most certainly come in handy when it's time to cut down, trim back and just generally give your entire property a clean-up in the aftermath of some rather nasty windy weather!  Be prepared when you venture outdoors ... your garden will never quite look the same again!

10.  Must-do's:
- have cash ... they just won't just give you stuff when you turn up to a shop that has no electiricty
- fill the fuel tanks in both your cars ... it's surprising just how much running around you have to do for elderly relatives in the aftermath of a cyclone
- constantly add to your collection of batteries ... make sure you have all the different types as you just might be surprised what sizes are needed for things like battery-operated radios and clocks
- tape all your windows ... even those you think are not in the direct path of cyclonic winds as it's amazing just how much pressure is created inside your house in the event of cyclonic winds
- finally, have a great sense of humour and a resilient nature ... it's very handy not to lose it when things start crashing into your house or falling off your house! 

O.K. ... silly stuff over with now!  All is well here. We sustained some damage to the house … the bull-nosed hood that wraps around the verandah had a section ripped off and there were a couple of smahed windows. Aside from that the house came through OK.

There was no torrential downpour with the cyclonic winds and I think that helped Townsville come through relatively unscathed. The winds apparently reached aorund 125-130 kms an hour here … it certainly felt like it! … but without the heavy rain the damage around our city appears to be quite minor.

There are thousands of trees down all around the city and many of them bought down powerlines. There’s still around 60,000 homes without power today … we’re one of those … and for some of us the lack of power also means there’s no running water. There’s no electricity to power the water pumping station.

So right now, we’re cooking on the barbie, using the generator for a few hours in the morning and at night, and using our water sparingly. I expect we’ll be one of the last suburbs to have the power restored as I’m afraid the outlying rural suburbs are not areas of priority.

Compared to those poor souls up in Mission Beach, Cardwell and Tully though, we’ve been very lucky. They have really suffered and they were just getting back on their feet after Cyclone Larry wiped through there a couple of years ago. The weather has remained relatively clear so that certainly helps with the clean-up and the repair crews are hard at work.

Our property here is covered with such a lot of debris from broken branches and fallen trees … we’ve been busy trying to clear a way out of the property as the driveway was impassable. It took almost an entire day, but the driveway is now cleared and we’ve started work on cleaning up the rest of the place. It will take a while, but we’re so thankful that’s the worst of it!

We’ve lost the tops off our two 30 feet tall Tabebuias, and our huge 30 feet by 30 feet Weeping Fig Tree … these trees are all located close together and the mess left by the branches ripped off is just massive.

Our 10 foot African Tulip Tree has falllen over completely and unfortunately taken out a fence panel. We also had the 30 foot Tabebuia from next door crash over another of our fence panels.

Next door’s Poinciana took out a number of tall trees down our driveway and many of the 8 feet Duranta shrubs were torn apart. Of course, we’re surrounded by gum trees our in the bushland and lots of broken branches ended up littered across our property. 

My stunning white Bauhinia is completely split in two and will have to be removed. My two 12 feet high Plumerias have many broken branches and will have to have a rather severe trim.

That's hubbie on his way back from dragging yet another huge load of debris to the what could be called our Mt. Everest pile!!  All in all the place does look a bit of a wreck, but that’s nothing compared to the devastation further north. We were lucky enough to dodge a rather massive bullet!

Yet Another Cyclone Is Coming ... Yep, Yet Another Cyclone Is Coming ... and it's a doozy!

‘Wet’ season here in northern Oz not only means heavy rainfall, but the possible occurrence of significant weather events like cyclones.

So far this ‘wet’ season we’ve had one Category 1 cyclone … Tropical Cyclone Tasha … which passed a little further north of us on Christmas Day morning. That cyclone deteriorated to a rain depression when it moved inland and went on to contribute significantly to the flooding experienced throughout central and southern Queensland.

Then on Monday this week, a borderline Category1/2 tropical cyclone, TC Anthony crossed the coast just south of us.  It made landfall in my home town where my Dad and brother still live.  Luckily there wasn't too much damage but they did experience 150 kilometre/hour winds and torrential rain.  Trees were squashed flat, caravans tossed around, some smashed windows ... but that was about the extent of the damage.

Well, today we're bracing ourselves for the arrival of possibly the largest tropical cyclone Queensland has experienced.  TC Yasi is on its way ... and it's a monster.  It will dump another massive amount of rain over Queensland as it deteriorates and moves inland ... and that is, of course, the last thing this state needs!

It's predicted to become a Category 4 just before it crosses the coast. Category 5 is the highest possible category for cyclones, this is going to be a bad one.  We've been closely watching it all day today and it's begun moving quite quickly towards the coast. No-one can be entirely certain where it might make landfall, but at the moment it's predicted to be further north, maybe up around Innisfail or Cairns.

Community Threat	Past Cyclone Details
Warning Zone - Gales within 24 hours Watch Zone - Gales from 24 to 48 hours	Past Location and Intensity Number Past Track and Movement
Current Cyclone Details	Forecast Cyclone Details (at 24 and 48 hours from issue)
Current Location and Intensity Number Very Destructive Winds Destructive Winds Strong Gale Force Winds	Forecast Location and Intensity Number Very Destructive Wind Boundary Destructive Wind Boundary Strong Gale Force Wind Boundary Most Likely Future Track Range of Likely Tracks of Cyclone Centre

It is however a huge system and we will definitely be affected. Nursing homes and one boarding school was evacuated yesterday ... and today most of the low-lying areas close to the coast have been warned to evacuate. There's a huge storm surge expected to hit Townsville and we will experience the outer edge of the destructive winds.

All schools are closed tomorrow and Thursday, so I get to stay at home. We have relatives living in the inner city who have been warned to evacuate so we'll be looking after them.  The supermarket shelves here are almost bare ... there's not a tin of Baked Beans or a roll of toilet paper to be found. On the way home from work this afternoon I saw incredibly long lines of cars waiting to fuel up at the petrol stations because we're expected to lose power for a while. People are queued at ATM's to get cash ... and there's not a battery to be found in this great city of ours!  I have to say too, lol, that there's not much wine or beer left in the bottle shops either!!! Typical for Aussies!

Ah ... the tropics! Anyone thinking of migrating for the wonderful weather??? Hmmm?

'Ului' turned out to be a bit of a gentleman!

Well, cyclone 'Ului' made landfall at around 1.30 am this morning (March 21st) and the outcome has been relatively good.  'Ului' crossed our coast around 230 kilometres away from where I live ... Townsville.

We have had very little rain and just a few patches of wind gusts ... so we got off scott-free! It's mostly been very, very still here ... which is what we expect when a cyclone is approaching, but not what we expect when it's close by. It's been a little eerie!  We're not sure whether we're going to get more rain and wind or if that's that!

Unfortunately my Dad lives a little further south, in Bowen, and that area was just within the heart of the cyclone ... that's the red part of the diagram above.  He lives only 50 kilometres away from where the centre of the cyclone's 'eye' hit .... so my hometown experienced wind gusts around 200 kilometres an hour.

My poor 'ole Dad said he could hear the roof lifting  ... the noise of the wind was apparently ear-splitingly loud!!  They lost power down there as soon as the 'eye' hit and it hasn't come back on yet ... and it's now over 10 hours later!   They experienced torrential rain and it's still raining ... there are lots of trees that have fallen down and power lines are down ...

... but luckily no deaths or casualties have been reported. They still can't leave their houses yet ... too much debris around.

There are reports of homes damaged, boats washed ashore, trees down and 60,000 homes without power,

but all in all ... 'Ului' turned out to be a bit of a gentleman.  He behaved quite well - given the fact that he was a Category 3 cyclone when he crossed the coast!   He only caused moderate damage ... well moderate damage for our corner of the world anyway! 

The Emergency Services and Disaster Relief Authorities credit the locals with being so well prepared that it helped create a positive outcome for this event.

It's been a week of watching and waiting!

Thar she blows!!!!  We've had our eyes wide open watching and waiting to see just what 'Ului' was going to do.  All week this monstrous cyclone ... originally rated Category 5 - has been racing across the Pacific towards us.  There is no higher category for cyclones ... so there are things that we must do to prepare for such a cyclone.

Luckily we had time to do a lot of trimming back and tidying up during the previous two weeks in between showers of rain.  A pile started building and building ....

... so mid-week we invited some friends around and we sat around the bonfire having a quiet one!

As the week progressed, Ului started to deteriorate ... down to Category 3 and then yesterday down to Category 2 ... so it's now only a 'Destructive' cyclone instead of a 'Very' or 'Highly Destructive' monster.  But it's still heading straight for our section of the north-east coastline.  It's now around 580 kilometres away but is expected to re-intensify to Category 3!

So today has been a busy Saturday ... moving potted plants from the courtyard, moving seedling trays and cuttings into shelter out in the greenhouse garden, a bit more trimming and another bonfire, making sure that there's nothing in the yard that could be blown around or blown away ... actually we had this task pretty well covered as there have been two other cyclones that have made landfall here in the north-east already during the summer!  

Now ... if it stays at Category 2, the cyclone's strongest winds can still gust at around 125 -170 kms an hour.  So, tonight I'll be moving all the furniture off the verandah.

Of course, we've already filled the gas bottles, filled the pantry, filled large water containers and put out the torches and candles where they're easily found.  The generator has been given a test start ... just to be sure it's still working ... and now it's time to sit back and wait.  'Ului' is expected to make landfall early in the morning somewhere along a 300-kilometre stretch of our coastline.

While this all sounds rather drastic, this is a normal part of life here during the summer into early autumn.  We can get ready for an imminent cyclone at the drop of a hat ... it's second nature to us now.  This map (courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology) shows the history of cyclones in our area over the last 34 years .... each coloured line shows the trail of a cyclone.

Our section of the Australian coastline ... I'm talking about northern Queensland ... unfortunately, is the area that experiences THE most number of cyclones in the entire country.

Now with any luck, all we'll get is a few hours of strong wind gusts and maybe some more rain ... fingers crossed! ... and we can hope that the cyclone crosses the coast in a unpopulated area and there's little damage.  It should be inland by Sunday evening ... after that we'll continue to get heavy showers and strong winds.

On a much lighter note ... today as I went out into the garden to prepare, I noticed my vanilla marigold is blooming ...

... now I'm thinking maybe it's not so much 'vanilla' as 'custard'!!!!  Maybe that's what they meant when they labelled it as 'vanilla' .... 'vanilla custard'.

Not only that, but just look ... finally ... my Empress Toad Lily (Tricyrtis x empress) has shown her beautiful face!