New South Wales Roll Call

[Airspeed]

Hi to our Members in NSW.
Hope you're all surviving the atrocious weather.

For those who haven't heard, the Hunter Valley recorded 300mm of rain; Sydney was over 100mm with winds around 135Kmh.
Emergency services report that the next 12 hours will be even worse.
News footage showed an entire house and outbuildings floating through town. This may have been the one in which three elderly folk died.
Thousands of homes and businesses are without power.

Best Wishes to all of you up there.
Would be good if you could check in here, power permitting of course.

[paulsl]

Hey Mike,

I'm lucky enough to live here. There were white caps off Kurraba Point Wharf this morning in just about the most sheltered harbour in the world. As I write this the rain is all but horizontal on account of the winds gusting to 80 km/h. Due to get to 120 later apparently. Nevertheless we're very lucky here - just one car wiped out by a falling tree down the road. There's many much much worse off. Not sure if I'll get to work tomorrow -the ferries will be dubious and the trains are struggling for traction, even in the tunnels of the City Circle line. The buses are doing a sterling job but struggling under the weight of replacing ferries and re-routing around all the closed roads.

Isn't it odd that if a Category 2 cyclone hits Queensland or WA the city slickers barely notice. When one hits Sydney & environs it's a major disaster. Stuffed if I know where I'll be able to get a latte tomorrow, eh?

If you'll forgive me getting sentimental, your concern personifies everything that's great about this forum. I won't go into the troubled times I've had over the last three years, but it's always been a comfort to come here and see folk just getting along. Thank you for your thoughts and thanks to all here for being such great people.

Paul

[Airspeed]

Excellent news Paul!
That's one ticked off the list.

[robbie]

[quote]

Isn't it odd that if a Category 2 cyclone hits Queensland or WA the city slickers barely notice. When one hits Sydney & environs it's a major disaster. Stuffed if I know where I'll be able to get a latte tomorrow, eh?

[quote]

Amazing isn't it Paul?, same thing over here, we've been through one of the worst winters on record with huge amounts of snow but all you hear on the news is the city slicker topics i.e hockey, thieving politicians, delays on the subway etc, while we were battened down in a blizzard with no power and winds topping 130 k/hr, Mike knows, I sent him some pics just to make him feel cooler in your Aus summer heat lol.

Keep safe Paul

Robbie

[emfrat]

What a country! - Dungog gets 312mm in 24hrs, which simply overwhelmed their drainage system, and Longreach has been in drought for the past four years...nothing around here, and it passed well to the North of the grandkids' place, so all well there. I'll be going down there tomorrow week for the airshow at the HARS Museum.

MikeW

[nigelb]

Paul, I am glad to hear you have weathered the storm. Stay safe and keep dry.

Nigel²

[Airspeed]

I think that the difference between cyclones hitting relatively deserted areas (in WA & QLD), and those hitting infrastructure is what qualifies an event as a disaster or not.
It's not that they are soft city slickers. In fact, the worst hit are 2 hrs 35min out of Sydney by motorway.
The 2000 passengers on a cruise ship, barred from entering Sydney Harbour, was experiencing an 11 meter swell. They got seasick, but will live to laugh about it later.
The three poor sods who drowned in their houses, and two more in a car swept off the road make for sad reading.
The many people whose houses floated away, or were smashed by the wind and falling trees, or whose vehicles were wrecked, would have different opinions about the severity of the storm.
There are now about 200,000 customers without power, and some entire country businesses were carried off in the flood.

I don't feel much sadness about sand being blown a few kilometers inland.
I am still concerned that there are other Members from NSW who haven't checked in. My thoughts are with them.