Cyclone Ului...we survived !!!

Hi guys. It's only been the last hour that we finally got power restored here after 3 days. Cyclone Ului ripped through this area on Sat. night wreaking destruction everywhere. Even tho we were some distance from the eye (approx 60km) we were still within the destructive wind zone. Everyone here estimates the wind to have been around the 160 - 180km/hr mark. Unless you've been through something like this before, it's really scary. We live in a lowset home on concrete slab and in a very sheltered position but even our house was shaking violently at times. There's trees down everywhere and Ergon crews have been working around the clock for days now trying to restore power. Amazingly there were few rooves that went flying. You just can't believe the sound the wind makes during a cyclone. It's like you have a freight train roaring past outside. My roses survived minus a lot of leaves but should come back ok. I ventured out into the carport with a torch to check on them a few times during the night. To venture past the carport would have been suicidal. Luckily we were able to get a lend of a small generator to run our fridges etc. but not before we lost all the perishable food. By having a "lick and promise" shower, were able to conserve the hot water for the last 3 days. During the cyclone the rain came in horizontal. I collected 165mm during the night but i'm not sure how accurate that was given the strength of the wind. Since then we have had a further 100mm or so, making the total since the beginning of Jan. around 1600mm or more. Up on our son's farm about 20km from here, he has had well over 2000mm. Anyway, we're all glad it's over and things can get back to normal.

Good to hear you came out the other end in good shape... was starting to wonder where you were too!

Hey Wedge

I was wondering how you got on. We have an office in Mackay and I have not heard from the manager up there as yet so I am not sure how he went. Probably no news is good news.

We (the business)are also part owners in a place at Midge Point which is just about where the storm crossed the coast. I have not heard from there yet but once agian I sure the tennants or the Real Estate would have let us know if there was any damage.

Things are slowly getting back to normal here. I guess it will take some weeks for normality to return. Balinbear, Midge Point got hit pretty hard as the eye of the cyclone passed very close to them i would think. Just before the power went out the lights were flickering so i captured an image of the rain radar showing the eye. I'll post it here. At the top of the photo you can see a semi-circular hole in the rain...that's the eye. The bottom of the eye is level with Proserpine. You can see Laguna Quays name on the map if you look closely. Midge point is about east of that. As the cyclone was travelling approx SW, the bottom of the eye would have crossed somewhere between Midge Point and Proserpine i guess. We have seen a small amount of footage on the local TV channel from Midge Pt. There's a lot of tree damage and i guess some building damage but all up, not too bad really. Even tho it was a high Cat3 cyclone when it crossed the coast, the damage has been very light considering. It sucked the air cons clean out of the walls on some of the island resorts. Power is still being restored to quite a few places around Mackay. When our power was out for 3 days, we had no phone service as well. Our mobile phones worked but the signal strength was way down at times. Maybe that's why you haven't heard from your office in Mackay ??

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Glad you came through it OK Dave. It all sounds very scary indeed and I was wondering about you a lot. I guess it will take a while to get things back on track so good luck with that.
Val

Sounds very scary Wedge. good to hear you came thought it OK.

Thanks Val and Abbi. I've been close to a few cyclones over the years but that one was the worst by far !! It sounded like a wild beast outside for hours on Sat. night. The sound is really scary as the huge wind gusts come roaring past. Our daughter in Brisbane rang us at the height of the cyclone and i walked outside to see if she could hear the wind on my mobile phone. It was so noisy that neither of us could hear one another. You could hear the big gum trees across the road shatter and splinter everytime another big gust came on top of the already roaring wind. Our son was telling us that he tried to get a sleep during that night but the bed was shaking too much let alone the rest of his house as they live on the side of a long sloping exposed hill. The water was coming in under his sliding aluminium windows and filling up the tracks. The windows very vibrating so much that it was vibrating the water about a metre out into the room and he had to keep mopping it up. He is still without power as the power for that area comes in over a small mountain range. Apparently the Ergon crews can't get good access because of all the fallen trees and waterlogged ground so they are running new powerlines by helicopter. He may still be without power for some time to come. Things are slowly getting back to normal here but i think the council crews will be cleaning up the fallen trees for many weeks.