The deluge.

The deluge.

Posted on 12 Jan, 2009 11 comments

The weather here has been WET. All those clouds I saw have actually been taken over by one thick heavy blanket of grey, looking miserable. The cyclone with a pretty name of Charlotte which had formed in the Gulf of Carpentaria had crossed the coast and caused severe flooding. It started yesteday morning with some rain, then we had a lot of strong windhoses in the evening and then the heavens opened. All night it was pouring. I was worried, as my daughter had gone to stay with a friend in town, so she could photograph the sunrise over the Coral sea on the beach. I thought she was mad, with that kind of forecast, but true, you never can tell. Of course there was no sunrise this morning only a dawning. She had said she’d be home before breakfast, but when she didn’t turn up at 7 am I checked the internet for the bridge monitor. Every half hour it gets updated, so you know how much water is in the river. This is the river which we always have to cross when leaving our little stick of the woods. And of course about another 400 residents in this area as well. Children have their summer holidays, so they don’t have to miss out on school, cause the schoolbus wouldn’t be able to come when the bridge is flooded.



So here I was sitting in the office this morning, hearing all the noise outside and checking the water levels. It was ok. But it kept raining and I got more worried. I decided to grab the phone and call her. I caught her in the car somewhere on the way. She said she had also checked the water level and she would be home soon, that is, as soon as she could drive through all that water. She said the road was flooded at places, cars, which were parked along the verge were halfway in the water. Drats, that even made me more worried. I got my husband outof bed. He had to check the raingauge for me! We had 4 inches of rain in 24 hours! I went down to the road to get the dustbin, which always gets collected on Monday mornings. But it was still full! This meant the truck had not come across the bridge. There was nothing we could do but wait till our daughter got home. And she did! At 7.30 she drove up to the house. I was relieved. She told us about the deluge in town and we checked the internet for that: 100 houses were flooded. The airport stagnated, flights cancelled. And yet, more rain fell as the cyclone, which had been downgraded by the end of the morning to a tropical low, had sucked in all that rain from up North.



The garden at the back had a river running through by now. It was really bucketing down and the water just rose and rose. It is 8 meters high now! We had thunder overhead, frogs going banana’s and there was the roaring thunder of the waterfalls all around us.Hubby and daughter went out to the river and couldn’t see it, for it was around the bend below and the water had risen onto the road on our side of the bend. After lunch I asked for an update on our rainfall. Hubby emptied the gauge again….another 3 inches, which had fallen in one morning. But the city had much much more. This afternoon it looked like we had seen the last of it, when it only drizzled. I could even check on the shrubs which had been blown over in the storm….then it started again and right now it is still bucketing down. Perhaps I’ll build an ark, you never know, do you?
The story is not finished. The removalists are supposed to come on Wednesday, well, that could be cancelled, my daughter is flying on Friday to Perth to live. She might have to change her flight too….if it doesn’t stop soon.
We are now, by rights isolated. I do have quite a bit of food in the house…..see how we go.



The poor waterlily, its leaves don’t like water on top.
Below a picture of a fallen over branch from the Duranta repens shrub.

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