I Survived The Epic Storm Of Perth 2010
The morning of the storm, I looked outside before leaving and decided that since it was nice and sunny I would leave the glass door open so that Zach could have fresh air coming in through the screen door. I made my way to Beldon, where I was teaching, and got through the afternoon of lessons without incident. I noticed in the last hour or so of the lessons that it had suddenly grown quite dark, but I figured it would just be a bit of light rain because well, we live in PERTH.
Anyway, by 3.30 I had packed about half of my equipment back into my car and was already getting a bit wet. I figured I'd keep on trying to pack up as I could always have a nice warm shower when I got home, and being Perth in March and all there was little chance of the weather getting any worse than it already was.
Then I was hit by a large hailstone.
I stood there for a minute, dumbfounded and trying to reconcile the larger-than-golf-ball chunks of ice that were appearing on the ground with the idea that they had come from the sky, and then I ran for cover. I made it to the covered walkway near the carpark just as it started to really come down. I had three keyboards still on my trolley, and I figured it's Perth so this will pass pretty quickly so I'll just wait here until it does.
A couple of minutes later the wind was so bad that my temporary shelter had ceased to be sheltery, so I tried the door to the office only to find it locked! I knocked on a window where I could see the deputy principal talking to somebody and made begging gestures for him to let me in. He shouted something but I couldn't make it out over the hail, so he motioned for me to go around the side to get into the staff room. I looked at him incredulously and pointed towards the office door once again, but he had already left. I groaned in annoyance and made my way down the path to the staff room which had huge waterfall-like leaks coming through every couple of metres, getting me nice and soaked.
The deputy-dude met me just outside the staff room and asked who I was. (This is quite typical of this school - neither the staff nor the students seem to be particularly engaged with what is going on around them.) Never mind that I was dragging three keyboards around a school or that I was wearing a badge that has my name on it and states that I am the keyboard teacher... And never mind that we'd been introduced a couple of times...
Anyway, the hail was still coming down so I stood in the staffroom and tried to warm myself a little. After a few minutes the hail had stopped and it was bucketing down with rain. The carpet at the external door started to get quite wet and I went into the reception area to let them know, only to find that they were already a few inches deep in water and had bins and buckets and things floating around the place!
When the rain began to let up, I decided to take the opportunity to make the dash for my car. Unfortunately I still had three keyboards and a trolley left to pack in there and the water was way up past my ankles. Still, I made it to the car, soaking up more moisture than I normally prefer, and slowly made my way home. The roads near the school were flooded, so I watched a few cars go through before attempting it myself. Once I got out onto un-flooded roads, I found that there was debris everywhere (mostly from gum trees) and parts of the road had become a dirt track!
Upon arriving home, I saw mum's car sitting there covered in dents and with holes through the back window, and went in to see if she was alright. She was a little shaken as she'd been driving when the hail came down, but otherwise ok. It was lucky that the windscreen didn't break. We spent half an hour or so rushing around the house, closing windows, getting the animals inside, putting out towels and buckets where water had started to come in, keeping Nanna sitting on the couch so she wouldn't slip on the wet tiles before we caught up with the puddles, finding candles etc.
After the second storm front had passed, mum and I decided to head down to the shops (hoping they had a generator) to try and get some extra candles. The power had already gone out and the candles we had were already nearly burned down from previous blackouts. I don't think we've had to buy new candles since the last big storm in 1994. Anyway, when we got to Greenwood shops we found that they had alarms going off and people weren't allowed in. So we continued on to Carine, which was closed so obviously no generator. The road we took to that shopping centre was lined with residents who were either huddled together enjoying a beer or working in groups to pull huge branches off the road.
We decided to take the other way back home so that we wouldn't have to weave around people and branches, only to find that there was a huge flooded section on that road. With all the traffic lights out, debris all over the road, patches of flooding and cars that hadn't made it through the flooded areas, it made for a pretty interesting drive back home. I've never seen such a mess caused by anything, let alone a storm!
We got dinner from Perth Noodle Wok. They must've made an absolute killing since they were the only place in Warwick that was open - they use gas stoves so they were still able to cook with the power out. Dad arrived home after over two hours on the freeway and we had a laugh about mum's car - it's had more damage due to storms than any car we've ever had!
Things to have come out of this storm:
~ I now have a really bad cold. I'd just started to get better when I got drenched in the storm and had to wade through ice cold water, and today I'm coughing more than I have in ages.
~ I believe that Zach may be incapable of feeling fear. The other animals huddled together and cowered in fear all night, but Zach didn't seem to care about the storm - he just ran around getting up to his usual mischief.
~ The shoes that I like to wear when teaching due to their being comfortable and presentable get really squidgy when wet.
~ My car is covered in hail dents
~ The flat smells like wet carpet due to the carpet having gotten rather wet.
~ The tree in the front yard that we've been trying to get the council to remove and that the council has been insisting is safe dropped a couple of large branches and one really big branch. Luckily, it missed the house. Unluckily, it took down a power line.
Hands up who thinks UWA looks and smells heaps prettier now that it's been completely covered in leaves!
Anyway, by 3.30 I had packed about half of my equipment back into my car and was already getting a bit wet. I figured I'd keep on trying to pack up as I could always have a nice warm shower when I got home, and being Perth in March and all there was little chance of the weather getting any worse than it already was.
Then I was hit by a large hailstone.
I stood there for a minute, dumbfounded and trying to reconcile the larger-than-golf-ball chunks of ice that were appearing on the ground with the idea that they had come from the sky, and then I ran for cover. I made it to the covered walkway near the carpark just as it started to really come down. I had three keyboards still on my trolley, and I figured it's Perth so this will pass pretty quickly so I'll just wait here until it does.
A couple of minutes later the wind was so bad that my temporary shelter had ceased to be sheltery, so I tried the door to the office only to find it locked! I knocked on a window where I could see the deputy principal talking to somebody and made begging gestures for him to let me in. He shouted something but I couldn't make it out over the hail, so he motioned for me to go around the side to get into the staff room. I looked at him incredulously and pointed towards the office door once again, but he had already left. I groaned in annoyance and made my way down the path to the staff room which had huge waterfall-like leaks coming through every couple of metres, getting me nice and soaked.
The deputy-dude met me just outside the staff room and asked who I was. (This is quite typical of this school - neither the staff nor the students seem to be particularly engaged with what is going on around them.) Never mind that I was dragging three keyboards around a school or that I was wearing a badge that has my name on it and states that I am the keyboard teacher... And never mind that we'd been introduced a couple of times...
Anyway, the hail was still coming down so I stood in the staffroom and tried to warm myself a little. After a few minutes the hail had stopped and it was bucketing down with rain. The carpet at the external door started to get quite wet and I went into the reception area to let them know, only to find that they were already a few inches deep in water and had bins and buckets and things floating around the place!
When the rain began to let up, I decided to take the opportunity to make the dash for my car. Unfortunately I still had three keyboards and a trolley left to pack in there and the water was way up past my ankles. Still, I made it to the car, soaking up more moisture than I normally prefer, and slowly made my way home. The roads near the school were flooded, so I watched a few cars go through before attempting it myself. Once I got out onto un-flooded roads, I found that there was debris everywhere (mostly from gum trees) and parts of the road had become a dirt track!
Upon arriving home, I saw mum's car sitting there covered in dents and with holes through the back window, and went in to see if she was alright. She was a little shaken as she'd been driving when the hail came down, but otherwise ok. It was lucky that the windscreen didn't break. We spent half an hour or so rushing around the house, closing windows, getting the animals inside, putting out towels and buckets where water had started to come in, keeping Nanna sitting on the couch so she wouldn't slip on the wet tiles before we caught up with the puddles, finding candles etc.
After the second storm front had passed, mum and I decided to head down to the shops (hoping they had a generator) to try and get some extra candles. The power had already gone out and the candles we had were already nearly burned down from previous blackouts. I don't think we've had to buy new candles since the last big storm in 1994. Anyway, when we got to Greenwood shops we found that they had alarms going off and people weren't allowed in. So we continued on to Carine, which was closed so obviously no generator. The road we took to that shopping centre was lined with residents who were either huddled together enjoying a beer or working in groups to pull huge branches off the road.
We decided to take the other way back home so that we wouldn't have to weave around people and branches, only to find that there was a huge flooded section on that road. With all the traffic lights out, debris all over the road, patches of flooding and cars that hadn't made it through the flooded areas, it made for a pretty interesting drive back home. I've never seen such a mess caused by anything, let alone a storm!
We got dinner from Perth Noodle Wok. They must've made an absolute killing since they were the only place in Warwick that was open - they use gas stoves so they were still able to cook with the power out. Dad arrived home after over two hours on the freeway and we had a laugh about mum's car - it's had more damage due to storms than any car we've ever had!
Things to have come out of this storm:
~ I now have a really bad cold. I'd just started to get better when I got drenched in the storm and had to wade through ice cold water, and today I'm coughing more than I have in ages.
~ I believe that Zach may be incapable of feeling fear. The other animals huddled together and cowered in fear all night, but Zach didn't seem to care about the storm - he just ran around getting up to his usual mischief.
~ The shoes that I like to wear when teaching due to their being comfortable and presentable get really squidgy when wet.
~ My car is covered in hail dents
~ The flat smells like wet carpet due to the carpet having gotten rather wet.
~ The tree in the front yard that we've been trying to get the council to remove and that the council has been insisting is safe dropped a couple of large branches and one really big branch. Luckily, it missed the house. Unluckily, it took down a power line.
Hands up who thinks UWA looks and smells heaps prettier now that it's been completely covered in leaves!