The heroes of the hour

Well, we’re through the worst and out the other side.

Overflowing gutters, gale force winds and total rain white-out

Yesterday was a horror. The Cyclone After-Party was worse than the main event from my point of view. All Tuesday night and all day Wednesday the rain was absolutely torrential, the wind was consistently stronger, and our gutters gave up on the job of carrying the water away. The downpipes basically exploded at ground level, and instead of the water running away into the land drains, it surged into the under-house soil and started seeping upwards. By mid morning we were almost ankle deep. Two hours of shifting and lifting had the worst crisis averted; after a flooding experience about 8 years ago, I store a lot of stuff in large plastic tubs which are of course waterproof and make excellent platforms for me to put the non-waterproof stuff on.

The dampness and smell in the house is pretty bad. So isn’t it a good thing that this morning the sun came out hot and strong? Initially, of course, the humidity was terrible, but then the wind picked up a bit and we could get some serious ventilation going. Most of the water is gone, the wet patches are drying, and despite the fact that every hard surface outside – and most of the floor at ground level inside – is covered with a film of mud and the grassed areas sink ankle deep into silty mud, I’m beginning to feel a lot more cheerful.

Our glamorous heroine, who kept her cool when all around were losing theirs

Miz Lizzie has been a godsend. By the end of the day yesterday we were both at the end of our tethers. We’d been filthy and soaked to the skin three times, trying to sort out the gutters, we were exhausted, grumpy, hungry and dirty. I called a halt. We had super-speedy ‘army showers’ (wet down, turn water off, soap down, rinse off, maximum 2 minutes of water), got into clean clothes, I made us a nice supper and we took it into the cool, clean caravan and ate it and got into cool, clean beds and slept, abandoning our blacked out, dark, hot, damp and smelly house for a few hours of peace.

Ozito inverter generator, a sturdy lad with 3300w smooth sine wave output, suitable for sensitive equipment. What a guy!

The other hero of the hour has been Ozzie the generator, who has run enthusiastically and without trouble, keeping our fridge cool enough that we haven’t had to throw anything out. He’s not even that thirsty, being quite economical even on high draw. We’ve moved him from the garage down the length of the back yard to our very ramshackle shed, so that he can be noisy elsewhere. In case you’re worried we ran a generator in an enclosed space, one entire wall of the garage is made of those ornamental pierced blocks for air flow. The shed is so very dilapidated that ventilation is completely irrelevant; the entire structure is riddled with holes large and small. We were hoping the cyclone would take it away for us, so that the insurance would buy us a nice shiny new one. No such luck; it’s entirely unscathed. Bummer.

Today’s post is going to be the final TC Debbie report. I don’t know when power will be restored, probably some time next week, but in the meantime we’ll be working to restore order slowly. Obviously sewing’s out of the question but I’ll find something to tell you about 🙂

This has been your WordPress Cyclone Field Reporter, bringing you the news hour by hour from the ‘Clone Zone. Until next time, Chiconia Out.