On Saturday afternoon we heard of the wild hailstorms that were taking place in Melbourne, and were thankful that we were spending the long weekend in the country with my parents and had missed being in the middle of the action. We checked that friends and family in Melbourne were okay, and that our house was okay too.
But on Sunday afternoon it was our turn. My parents’ house was right in the middle of the freak winds that swept through the Shepparton region. My husband was looking at the weather radar on the computer just before it hit, and said that there was a black spot on the radar that was heading straight for us. It certainly was.
The freakiest thing for me was how fast it all happened. The sky went dark, a few drops of rain started to fall and then suddenly the wind just roared and the rain was pelting down horizontally. Within minutes the street was flooded, as the water couldn’t escape down the drains quickly enough. The house gutters filled with water and with debris from the trees and before long there was water pouring down the inside walls of some of the rooms. The girls were scared, Stella of the thunder and lightning, and Clare because she could hear the cracks of trees and was worried about branches landing on the house.
As it turns out, Mum and Dad were lucky. Numerous trees lost branches, some landing on the back fence, others landing right beside the house, but the roof stayed intact. Water pipes were smashed and the power went out right at the beginning of the storm.
The full fury of the storm only lasted a minute or two, although it continued to rain for hours. One of the weirdest things was the smell of sap from all the broken trees. Lots of trees had been completely uprooted. Neighbours had trees smash holes in their roof. Almost everyone had water in their houses to some degree. Power poles were snapped and all the power lines were down. Big green traffic signs were blown horizontal – the metal poles bent over under the sheer force of the wind. We don’t know how exactly what wind speeds were or the volume of rain, because the meterology station was hit by lightning at the very beginning of the storm.
The full impact of what had happened only sunk in for me when I walked around the block to survey the damage this morning. All the neighbours were out moving debris, and chain saws were heard everywhere. Some houses were damaged but nobody was hurt. We were all so lucky, and I kept thinking of the people that live in cyclone or tornado prone areas, and wondering how they manage.
The power is still off at my parents’ house, and I imagine it will be days before it will be restored. They’ll be tidying up their property for weeks. Such a short amount of time to wreak such widespread destruction. Yet we are all very very lucky and so grateful to be safe. It seems a little surreal to be sitting in our nice dry house in Melbourne now with electricity and the internet and no damage at all when just 24 hours ago we were trying to assess the damage that had taken place at my parents’ house.