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Sunday 8 March 2009

Uh Oh

Here it comes. We've been due for one of these for ages - a big cyclone with enough guts to make it all the way down the coast to this neck of the woods. Last time it happened, they didn't have all those canal developments down at Noosa. Could be nasty. Hope they've started filling sandbags. Looks like it'll be down here tomorrow, and get to us on the 10th. 

Word of advice to anyone who hasn't ever been in one of these bastards: NOW is the time to panic - not in the middle of the storm.

Tie EVERYTHING down.
Get any loose materials stashed under the house. 
Tape your windows up with good heavy gaffer tape. 
Anything valuable, get it away from the walls and from beneath light fittings - if you lose your roof, thats where the water pours in through the ceiling. 

Actually, if it does look like it's going to cross the coast anywhere near you - get the kids and the pets and your photo albums into the car and head for the hills. You won't get out when the storm surge arrives. A storm surge like this will cause will prevent the Noosa River from draining its ebb tide. You'll have the whole of Lake Cootharabra on your doorstep, then up to your neck, and you won't be able to evacuate.  This happens VERY quickly on this river. 

If you are directly in its path and unable to leave and you do lose your roof, get under a mattress in the most protected part of the house - laundry, bathroom - get the kids in the bath and cover them up - its the flying debris that will get you - a piece of corro can slice through trees like a razor blade.

If the wind stops blowing abruptly, you are in the EYE of the cyclone. DO NOT leave your safe haven. The wind will come back with equal intensity from the other direction.  

Good luck anyone in its path - its a mother and father of a monster. Get safe, and if you have no reason to be here - get the hell out of town.

8 comments:

  1. Got a butterfly stomach happening, and it takes a lot to get me nervy.
    I've experienced cyclones, but nothing this massive. If I had to admit it, I'd say I'm shitting myself.

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  2. Hughsey you take care up there and play safe.

    Be thinking of you and geoffrey against the elements.

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  3. Hey Hughesy. My brother in Mackay said it barreled past there and kept heading South. Berely wet the place. At the speed it is travelling it will be down this way by Monday night or Tuesday. Might be a bit wet for a couple of days.

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  4. Maybe, but as I think it is probably impossible to read the mind of a weather system, it'll be red alert around here till the f*cker is just a drop in the ocean.

    These bloody big storms are like pin balls. Once they bounce off Fraser Is, they sometimes have a mind to double back in toward the shore. I still remember 1974. I'm a bit of an elephant when it comes to remembering stuff like this.

    Spoke to a bloke today (yep, only conversation available in town is the weather, as usual) who'd had a conversation with a woman of 89 years, who can remember breaking waves at Munna Pt, rolling all the way in over the Noosa bar, unimpeded, the storm surge was that high.

    And though I'm up in the hills, it will still mean no power, no phone and no movement till the waters subside.

    Hope it has gone, but Im not prepared to relax until it's heading towards cape Byron.

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  5. Glad it missed ya, I think recent times have shown the sense in preparing for the worst.

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  6. "who can remember breaking waves at Munna Pt"

    Excellant!
    I cant tell you how pleased I am I didn't read this at the time.
    Mind you we look straight out at the Bar and had similar thoughts.
    If / when it happens it'll be Qbuilds problem - not mine!

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