I’m no Moses.
March 24, 2010
Filed under:Lotso Pics
You may have heard by now, you may not bother with slightly wild weather on the assend of an assend continent. I don’t blame you, but we had Mother Nature cruise through and flex a little muscle for Perth the other day.
Despite the fact that water was streaming in through parts of the roof/windows like a group of drunken frat boys all jabbed garden hoses into my house at once and we’re going through significant cleanup, we could’ve had it a LOT worse.
Here’s some pics:
This storm blew in hard and fast and the BOM gave us about an hour or so warning. Thanks fellas!
Jadey and I were at the shops when it first hit and we could hear the thunder booming through the ceiling of the shopping centre. By the time we’d made it out to the "Horsey Ride" coin-op machine, the lights were flickering.
BOOM! Then the power went out completely. "Horsey wide bwoken?" she asked me as I went to buy some avocados before the shopkeepers all pulled their roller doors down.
Stoplights were out the entire way home though I didn’t see water like this picture above until later.
This was downtown I think, and in our little suburb my truck was one of the few that could make it up both main streets.
A shot of downtown when the rain was heaviest. At this point, I was doing dishes and prepping for Mexican dinner whilst wife watched the storm with Jadey.
The tunnel was brutal, though most cars were making it.
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Silver lining mate, way to find it.
A LOT of water fell all at once. Some suburbs got this, while other got some serious effin’ hail.
Hope your seals are tight bro.
A nearby shopping centre got hit pretty hard and many parts of the roof failed.
Some parts of the city got the same amount of water, just very frozen and breaky.
Obviously thirsting for fame, this was at the UWA campus I think.
Hail breaks stuff, so I’ll mention again how thankful we were it didn’t get us. At this point in the storm, I’m putting pots and pans under the drips appearing in the kitchen/dining room "window".
The wind and lightning took out some trees and then the lightning took out the power.
At this point in the storm, Damon has come out from the office and told us that water is streaming in from the window frames. By the time we’d started in with the towels for it, he’d alerted us to the bedroom windows doing the same thing. By the time we’d sorted that with towels and much unplugging of electronics, he’d found leaks in his room and the playroom, all pissin’ into our house like we’d done something wrong and dishonourable.
By this point in the storm, we were simply in Damage Control mode, and after seeing water running out of the light fixtures I switched off the mains power at the breaker. I found out later that power in our entire region of the metro area went out a few minutes later, so I needn’t have bothered, but it still made me feel safer and less Maybe Die-ish.
There was a gap between the main parts of the storm long enough for sunset. Rain hit again in the Southern suburbs and kept the waters high. Just after this, I’d gone to Jo’s mum’s to check in on them and then on to her grandparent’s house. With the power out in the region, most mobile phones weren’t getting great coverage, and face-to-face visits always make folks feel better.
We didn’t get it as bad as this fella. Apparently this guy’s dad was under that bit of roof and had to go to hospital for his injuries.
A common sight in quite a few homes. They reckon the damage bill was at $78 million this arvo and will top $110 by the end of the week.
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The debris is almost completely the new mulch they’d just put in across the street at the park. The debris line shows that the water had made it up our quite steep (comparitively) driveway but ebbed before sliding down the lane and into the house. Thank goodness for small favours, because everybody else up the street from our house on (all on lower ground) got some up their driveway and at least flooded out their garages.
Of course, none of them had it pissing into their bedroom and office…
Also, see that winch? Didn’t have to use it the night before, but almost did when some idiot in a low car followed me through the main street in our suburb. I tried to wave him off but he went right in behind me and I not only saw the water up over his headlights but saw them flicker several times. I wasn’t going to leave him there if he’d stalled, but BOY would I have been pissed if I’d have to get all wet pulling him out. Luckily he made it through, but it sure makes you feel good knowing you’re driving the Biggest, Baddest Bitch on the roads.
Wife took this of the tree across the park right outside our house. That tree was first base in the kid’s baseball game just last Friday.
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So there you go. I’ll write more about it later, probably another entry and something articulate and entertaining, but right now I’m beat.
Cleaning this place up has wiped me out.
If anybody knows any Sparkies, we need one to tell me if I can turn my lights back on.