and the sky went BANG!

fri 1.10.2010
What is it with me and storms? I used to love storms as a kid and into my teens, but now I'm not so keen. I remember standing on my back verandah where I grew up and watching the storm roll towards us and laughing into the wind as the lightning struck closer and closer. It looked like I was going to be one of those crazy storm chasers, but then a few things happened to change that. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with having kids, but the first storm I remember being really scared in was at our house in the Southern Highlands of NSW. H was probably under two years old and E was only a tiny baby asleep in her bassinet. I was suffering pretty severe post natal depression and didn't do much more than the basics for the two little girls in those few months. But as the rain pelted down and hail smashed into the windows and the wind howled through the cracks (of which there were many), I ran into the bedroom and grabbed E from her bed (which was a big deal, because my babies don't sleep so it would have been a very rare moment of peace) dragged H to the middle of the house and huddled down with them. My main concern was the two huge gum trees in our front yard which overhung the two bedrooms at the front and always looked like they were threatening to fall on us. "They" tell you to keep away from windows when there is a severe storm, but our house was so tiny, that there really wasn't anywhere away from windows. I fed E and she fell back asleep in my arms. It felt like hours, but was probably only 10-15 mins at the most when things finally settled down. I left the girls inside and went to look at the damage. All down our road trees were down. Huge trees were ripped up roots and all. Everything was lying parallel to the road, so nobody's house was damaged by trees, but there was lots of houses which were flooded and all the powerlines were down. I helped some neighbours move heavy branches from their driveways and took some photos of the water rushing down the street. The road was closed and J.T. had to convince a police officer to let him ride his motorbike down to our house as he got home from work, by promising her he would jump any trees or powerlines! We had some trees come down from our neighbours house over our fence, but there wasn't much damage at all. The storm was on the news and was called a "mini-hurricane." It had only affected our street. The streets around had got a bit of rain, but nothing else. There was no damage on any other street in the suburb.

So, why is this relevant? When we were in Darwin we had a big storm. I know, I know, it's Darwin and they always have big storms, but it was loud and it was rainy and windy and I now have four girls to protect and we were in our flimsy little camper. There were people running around hammering in tent pegs and men looking out their caravan and camper windows and doors, staring nervously at the trees and making sure their chairs weren't blowing away. H was crying (E was asleep, so were C and M) and J.T claimed there was nothing to worry about. I looked up the bureau of meteorology site  to check out the radar and saw there was a lot of heavy rain. Well, derr. It eventually passed, H went back to sleep and I lay in bed not able to sleep. Skip to about a week later and we are in Mataranka. That evening as we head to bed we could see clouds on the horizon being lit by flashes of lightning. They were small, fluffy clouds a long way away, so I wasn't too concerned and remembered how I used to love lightning. At about 10.30pm we were all in bed with with all the windows down and it started getting very windy. For the next two hours we were pummelled by wind, rain, thunder and lightning. At one stage the wind died down a bit and there was no more sheet lightning. We hadn't yet got any rain. J.T said, "the wind's stopping I think the front has passed." Then the rain hit. I sent J.T to check H - who was awake and crying quietly to herself - and I huddled under the doona. M was beside me and kept feeding as she was awoken by the noise. I was a mess. I tried to take deep breaths, I tried to tell myself that storms like this happen every day and people don't generally die, but I found it hard not to sob out loud and thought I was going to vomit. I was petrified. J.T insisted we would be knocked around less if we kept the windows down and only close the ones that were letting in rain through the fly screens, but it felt like there was nothing between us and the full force of the storm. Which really there wasn't!  I couldn't even check the radar, as we didn't have phone reception and that usually gives me a bit of hope when I can see there is an end in sight. I eventually got up the courage to kneel on the bed and close all the zippers around us, so I couldn't see and feel so much and that made it a lot easier to cope with. J.T was still with H, so I assumed if I was going to die, I would have to try and protect M. Of course J.T. had fallen asleep lying next to H and had no concerns about dying in a ferocious storm. Eventually, it passed. We all survived. I assumed I was just a big baby and that it had been a mild storm with nothing to worry about. When I stepped outside the next morning I saw that we had been very lucky. We were parked under a big gum tree and it had dropped small branches and leaves, but trees around us had dropped massive branches which would have squished our camper and us. I spoke to the owner of the park and she said that they don't normally get storms until about November or December and not usually that big. She also said she wouldn't have liked to have been camping in it. Well, thanks, neither did I. If I ever own a caravan park and there's a big storm, I'll make sure everyone gets to safety and shelters in our specially made storm bunker. I'll have to get J.T. to organise that though, because I'll be in the bunker, hiding under my doona.