Big Storm Coming

[Cmar]

Well we are sitting, waiting, for this to arrive. Sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Tropical Cyclone Alfred, a Cat 2 / 3 storm which has been traveling south down through the Coral sea for a week and has now suddenly decided to turn and make landfall. Luckily it's not a big one but even Cat 2 is capable of some serious damage and it is going to hit smack bang in the middle of the most populated area of the state.

The wind is going to be bad enough, but it's the rain that will follow it that will be the real killer. We've had a pretty wet summer and so the ground isn't going to soak up much of it, it's mainly going to run off, and most of the dams are already full. A local dam, Wivenhoe (it's massive, twice the size of Sydney Harbour, a 2.5 K road runs along the top of the wall) is already dumping water in expectation.
Well for the last two days everything that could take flight around here has been put away, or tied down, we live on a hill so no danger of flooding but we may get cut off. We have forest next to us which is both a curse and a blessing, it's a good wind break, but will also no doubt be a source of flying debris.

And my wife and I were going to go on a cruise tomorrow..... ha ha not happening, the port is closed, as that's pretty much where ground zero is predicted to be.

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[twk]

Wow, hopefully everything will be right.
Still got time to fill up the cars with gas? No one ever does that. Go!
I lived in Florida for a few years. Power goes out, no gas stations open, no microwave oven.
But the grill still fires up.

 

[Cmar]

Cars are filled, there is cold beer in the fridge, about 50 litres of bottled water stored away, we will almost certainly loose power, that happens every summer with just thunder storms, camping fridges are already plugged in and chilling, camping 12volt batteries in a a box charged, and ready to power the fridges when the 240 volt power drops out, if the outage is extensive I have solar blankets to charge the batteries. BBQ is currently tied to the verandah post to stop it from taking flight, but I have taken my trusty Coleman dual fuel stove out of the camping gear and given it a test run, have heaps of shellite for the stove, the gennie has fuel and we are currently eating the contents of the freezer.
What can be done, has been done. This isn't our first rodeo.

But the grill still fires up so true!

 

[Radioman]

Well we are sitting, waiting, for this to arrive. Sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Tropical Cyclone Alfred, a Cat 2 / 3 storm which has been traveling south down through the Coral sea for a week and has now suddenly decided to turn and make landfall. Luckily it's not a big one but even Cat 2 is capable of some serious damage and it is going to hit smack bang in the middle of the most populated area of the state.

The wind is going to be bad enough, but it's the rain that will follow it that will be the real killer. We've had a pretty wet summer and so the ground isn't going to soak up much of it, it's mainly going to run off, and most of the dams are already full. A local dam, Wivenhoe (it's massive, twice the size of Sydney Harbour, a 2.5 K road runs along the top of the wall) is already dumping water in expectation.
Well for the last two days everything that could take flight around here has been put away, or tied down, we live on a hill so no danger of flooding but we may get cut off. We have forest next to us which is both a curse and a blessing, it's a good wind break, but will also no doubt be a source of flying debris.

And my wife and I were going to go on a cruise tomorrow..... ha ha not happening, the port is closed, as that's pretty much where ground zero is predicted to be.

Be safe...

 

[Cmar]

Thanks mate we'll take care, as the famous Dorethea Mackellar poem about Australia goes,
" I love a sunburnt country,
a land of sweeping plains,
of ragged mountain ranges,
of drought and flooding rains".
Well we're going to be doing the rains bit, other parts of Australia are ironically doing the drought bit at the moment. Record summer temperatures set everywhere again this year. Which is possibly why we're getting a cyclone so late in the season this far south.

 

[twk]

Cars are filled, there is cold beer in the fridge, about 50 litres of bottled water stored away, we will almost certainly loose power, that happens every summer with just thunder storms, camping fridges are already plugged in and chilling, camping 12volt batteries in a a box charged, and ready to power the fridges when the 240 volt power drops out, if the outage is extensive I have solar blankets to charge the batteries. BBQ is currently tied to the verandah post to stop it from taking flight, but I have taken my trusty Coleman dual fuel stove out of the camping gear and given it a test run, have heaps of shellite for the stove, the gennie has fuel and we are currently eating the contents of the freezer.
What can be done, has been done. This isn't our first rodeo.

But the grill still fires up so true!

What? You're using your head, and prepared? That's cheating.
Seriously, good luck. I'm sending good vibes. And to all your neighbors as well.

 

[Cmar]

Thanks mate! God helps them who help themselves.

Next door ( well 60 meters away) we live in an acreage area, came over with his wife for a beer and wine yesterday afternoon, we've been friends for over 25 years now and will look out for each other. That's how we roll.

 

[Cmar]

Well it's just breaking dawn, I'll post now as the cyclone is currently crossing the coast about 45KM east of here now and not sure how much longer I'll have power. Lots of wind last night but everything still holding firm. Eerily calm at the moment. We did build this house to basic cyclone standard 30 years ago.
Some of our other friends from up the street dropped by yesterday afternoon for a beer and chat, they grow tropical flowers for a living and are worried about how their black plastic covered hothouse will fare. I remember helping them layout the hothouse about 5 years ago.
Our Nebelung cat has turned into a giant grey leech who won't stay off me, I think she knows what's about to happen.
See you all on the other side.

 

[got3fords]

Cars are filled, there is cold beer in the fridge, about 50 litres of bottled water stored away, we will almost certainly loose power, that happens every summer with just thunder storms, camping fridges are already plugged in and chilling, camping 12volt batteries in a a box charged, and ready to power the fridges when the 240 volt power drops out, if the outage is extensive I have solar blankets to charge the batteries. BBQ is currently tied to the verandah post to stop it from taking flight, but I have taken my trusty Coleman dual fuel stove out of the camping gear and given it a test run, have heaps of shellite for the stove, the gennie has fuel and we are currently eating the contents of the freezer.
What can be done, has been done. This isn't our first rodeo.

But the grill still fires up so true!

Talk about being prepared, nice job! Last time we lost power, the first thing I powered up with my portable solar generator was the coffee maker. It has lots of power yet small enough to take to where you need it most.

 

[Motorpsychology]

Well we are sitting, waiting, for this to arrive. Sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Tropical Cyclone Alfred, a Cat 2 / 3 storm which has been traveling south down through the Coral sea for a week and has now suddenly decided to turn and make landfall. Luckily it's not a big one but even Cat 2 is capable of some serious damage and it is going to hit smack bang in the middle of the most populated area of the state.

The wind is going to be bad enough, but it's the rain that will follow it that will be the real killer. We've had a pretty wet summer and so the ground isn't going to soak up much of it, it's mainly going to run off, and most of the dams are already full. A local dam, Wivenhoe (it's massive, twice the size of Sydney Harbour, a 2.5 K road runs along the top of the wall) is already dumping water in expectation.
Well for the last two days everything that could take flight around here has been put away, or tied down, we live on a hill so no danger of flooding but we may get cut off. We have forest next to us which is both a curse and a blessing, it's a good wind break, but will also no doubt be a source of flying debris.

And my wife and I were going to go on a cruise tomorrow..... ha ha not happening, the port is closed, as that's pretty much where ground zero is predicted to be.

Is this the same storm that was in Aukland, NZ? A friend of my neighbors' had to postpone their trip to the US because the airport closed; all flights cancelled

 

[Cmar]

No this one was nowhere near Auckland. New Zealand is about 1,500 miles south east of Australia. This storm started in our tropical north about a week and a half ago, and just slowly traveled south through the Coral sea picking up water and energy from the warm water before suddenly turning west. Same process that produces hurricanes in your Caribbean.

 

[Cmar]

Well peeps it looks like we may have dodged a bullet, we have barrier islands off the coast here similar to the ones you have off your Carolina / Georgia coast. The cyclone hit them early this morning, slowed down to a tropical storm category, and swung about.
It's still heading our way, but a bit further north now, with significantly reduced winds, we'll still cop the rain but it seems the worst danger is over.
There has been some considerable damage to the south of us on the sea fronts (sand loss and major erosion) particularly on the islands, and the Gold Coast, with trees down and power outages.
And it looks like parts of northern New South Wales (state to our immediate south) will get flooded again - they were devastatingly flooded in February of 2022, and 2011, before that. It's impossible to get flood insurance parts of there now.

But all in all not too bad.

 

[got3fords]

Well peeps it looks like we may have dodged a bullet, we have barrier islands off the coast here similar to the ones you have off your Carolina / Georgia coast.

We have barrier islands off Ga. and the Carolinas? Where?

 

[twk]

I believe he's talking about the string of islands near Kitty Hawk, NC. This is a small section.

 

[got3fords]

I believe he's talking about the string of islands near Kitty Hawk, NC. This is a small section.

Oh, I guess that would make sense. I was looking more broadly.

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