TheColebecks

We have family in Perth - Safety Bay & Waikiki - not knowing the area at all, was this anywhere near them???

Karen

Simone

Gosnells still has most power down(except where they've started to install underground power. Postoffice is shut!!!
Subway here in Maddington had storm damage, so couldn't get the bosses lunch there, lol

Apparently they're concentrating on getting trees of lines now just to start with.
Again we were lucky in Mt Hawthorn, not power out at all.

sophia

hiya karen

I live in the safety bay area, we did get the wild weather too, but doesn't seem to have done as much damage as up the road for some reason. There is lots of tree debris about, but I think most of the rooves and stuff are ok. Our power was out for a while this morning but that was about all.

Kwinana council have been quite badly hit, my hubby is the IT manager there and they've sent all their staff home today as the phone and power lines are all down. Kwinana seems to have been worse hit than rockingham.

Off topic slightly...but is wind related...how come the wild weather last night has brought half of perth to a standstill this morning, but crap that has been left out for the junk collection next week is all still in little neat piles everywhere?????

love sophia xx

Simone

Well, just seen the news. Still lots of talk about tornado's(about 30 of them, some only about 20 seconds), even by the weather bureau.

It's a disaster area in some suburbs(Kwinana, Apelcross, Bicton, Roleystone, Bunbury). Whole car yards ruined, primary school flattened, roofs off, power lines still down after 8 hours, Canning bridge closed due to crane crooked(I drove past there just now on fwy, I could see two big cranes.
A slab of concrete of someone's driveway had just lifted up!

Power still it out in 10's of thousands of homes, mostly in southern suburbs. Some not expected to get power till tomorrow.



hmm, this is interesting:
Rainfall so far this month 132.6 mm on 10 days
Average for May 119.0 mm on 12 days
Rainfall so far this year 181.8 mm on 29 days
Avge 1st Jan. to end of this month 205.0 mm on 27 days
Average annual rainfall 859.0 mm on 111 days

maggy

Heard a big roar of thunder then the bloody heavens opened and I was on my way to work.

It was pretty scary as we could not see 2 ft in front of us and Mark was driving along Hepburn to Kingsley.

I have never experienced rain like it in my entire life :scared:

Day off tomorrow and we are supposed to have similar weather so I intend to stay in bed all wrapped up under my doona.

Vegemite Kids

No, these are both in the Rockingham area and as Sophia says wasnt nearly as bad down there.

I live in Perth but work in Rockingham and it was very noticable driving down this morning that there was a point where the weather radically improved and rain lessened to a just a downpour. On the way home tonight at almost exactly the same point on the freeway the weather got noticably worse.

Tonyonthemove

You've probably seen the news by now, but trust me it didn't do any justice to the real devestation in Bunbury. Thankfully our hostel survived relatively unscathed, but many weren't so lucky. We got power back at 9.15am and then I was called out 10am with the Bush Fire Brigade to go and help where we could. Even after spells in Bosnia and the Gulf whilst in the RAF didn't prepare me for what I saw. It was like something you'd expect to see in the American midwest or a disaster movie. Huge trees up rooted or snapped like twigs, corrugated iron sheets wrapped around trees like ribbons, roofs missing, fronts of buildings missing, buildings missing(!). I still can't believe no body was hurt badly. There were some buildings smashed to pieces while right next door there would be very minor damage, if any at all. I think it has been confirmed that it was a tornado.

Watching the news it said that apparently between Busselton and Perth there is a tornado alley. Now that was something Dimia never told me about in my arrival pack....

Pollyana

Phew, sounds bad Tony. You are right, the TV pictures (certainly in Brisbane) didn't give any real idea that it was that bad. Glad you are OK; sounds like it was a miracle noone was killed.

The SES have been busy too - and remember, they are all volunteers.

http://www.fesa.wa.gov.au/Alerts/display.aspx?id=429

Tonyonthemove

Yeah, SES from all over the place were pretty flat out sorting things out. Alas the whole rivalry thing between SES, Volunteer Fire and Rescue and Volunteer Bush Fire means that good intentions can be lost to petty one up manship. We arrived at the Bunbury SES station today and were treated like second class citizens. One of the great things about Australia is the whole volunteer thing. I find it very frustrating and think it's just a shame certain members of these services need to do one upmanship instead of looking at the big picture - we're all there to help out in a time of need. Also I think the Government also use it as a good excuse not to give extra funding to the emergency services where it's needed - why pay when there are volunteers.

Anyway that's my rant over with off to batten down the hatchs tonight, just in case.

Pollyana

Thats a real shame Tony, and as you say its a pity it ruins the fact that everyone is there to help. Anonymous comment will be passed to my colleagues in WA.......(I work in SES Operations Admin Support, the paid part of the operation!)....and I shall make a note to mention in our meetings to try and ensure the same doesn't happen here when we next have a major operation. We are all supposed to work together after all.

manxfamily

Theres no place like home... There no place like home... Theres no place like home...

Pollyana

Ah, but when you've been here a few months you find yourself asking "where's home?"

Simone

Tony, on the news(the longer special news, not the regular bullitons) I did get the impression it was like a disaster movie, though still can't imagine how bad it was.
Though the things I saw did convince we it was tornado('s).


Do you know how the Carey Park area is, or was it mostly the 'cbd' worst hit?
My friends aren't answering their phone, but it does play up often enough!!

manxfamily

Looks pretty bad to me.

Have a look

http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/c...55E953,00.html

moneypenny20

Nice to know that fire brigades the world over behave the same In Britain the wholetimers think they are more important and more qualified than the retained and many many times they are way off beam and they forget they are all supposed to be working to the same goal.

Hope everyone is ok out there. From what I've read and heard, you have been very lucky injury wise.