© irene waters 2015
With Charli’s prompt this week she had me time travelling through the various extreme weather events that I have experienced. Many floods, storms, cyclones and fires. In the scheme of these disasters I have to admit that I have come out of them unscathed or nearly unscathed but lucky compared to many. I could not help myself — I had to write two flashes for this prompt. The first was about a wind with 200km/hr speed that cut a narrow pathway through my suburb in Sydney and continued out to sea. The damage was severe. These photos are of my house and our cleanup, the street I lived in and as I said our damage was light compared to some. Help came from everywhere and the casualties seen in hospital were higher from cleanup accidents than the actual event.
Suddenly, unexpectedly the sky darkened, emitting an eerie green glow. It sounded like an express train passing at speed when the wind came, followed by the crash and splintering of wood. The tin of the roof buckled under the weight of the fallen trees, that had twisted and snapped like twigs. It passed, as soon as it came, continuing on its path of destruction. Shattered people emerged, surveying the damage. Emergency services eventually reached the needy, clearing the roads and tarping the rooves. Unaffected friends helped.
Three days on, power unfixed, we listened on the car radio – Desert Storm.
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
We did not have power returned for over a week. The clean up took much longer. After three days we were forgotten however as Desert Storm operations commenced. Disaster is after all relative.
Another cyclone we lived through in Vanuatu gave me a different story.
Prepared for the worst we bunkered down after giving rations, water, torches and extra blankets to our guests. They’d be safe in their bungalows, as these had stood against cyclones of greater strength than now predicted . Nevertheless, as the wind howled bending the trees double, we worried about them. At great danger to himself, in the calm of the eye, before the storm turned with its destroying ferocity, Peter visited them and checked they were alright.
They left when the airport reopened gushing their thanks.
A month later: a complaint. We hadn’t served breakfast. Please refund money in full.
In response to Charli’s prompt where she asks:
August 26, 2015 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about the need for help in an extreme weather event. Is the help local or global? Does it arrive or the plea go ignored? It doesn’t have to be fire. Think about extreme weather occurrences and consequences.
Respond by September 1, 2015 to be included in the weekly compilation. Rules are here. All writers are welcome!
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Irene, your words put me right back to 1996, which Hurricane Fran swirled around our house with little mini-tornadoes. All of our cars were crushed by trees, and we had three that landed on and in our roof, with one that was driven into a bedroom. It took us three years to recover. There is power in your story!
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Thanks Noelle. Having gone through that you would have total understanding. I can understand it taking you three years to recover. I guess parts of the States haven’t recovered yet from Fran.
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Excellent flash — both. Beautifully done. The first one…yikes. The second one… *sigh* I can imagine that, unfortunately.
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Thanks Sarah. It is sad that people are like that. What made me angry was that Peter risked his life to check on them and they did that in return.
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Your stories put it all in perspective – counting blessings goes much farther than calculating opportunities. I hope you gave the tourists $1.89 for their missed breakfast.
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We didn’t give them anything. Luckily one of them had sent us a letter thanking us profusely so I just sent a copy of that to the travel agent who got the client’s intention.
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Tornadoes were a new phenomenon for me in Minnesota and I dodged several, never getting a full on hit from one, but seeing the devastation in towns elsewhere. An amazing twist in your first flash and how global news can distract us even from disaster. Your second is a head-shaker. Life-threatening event averted but no breakfast? Reminds me of the mentality of deniers. 😉
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Thanks Charli. And that global news was a disaster in itself. The portent of a changing Middle East that we can now not escape with the tide of people fleeing desperate circumstances.
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Ha, you hadn’t served breakfast! I think some people travel to far-off places to have a dream holiday, with no concept of the demands they make on the local communities. Pity your guest wasn’t able to learn anything from this experience.
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They probably did learn but once home and the credit card bills for their holiday start coming in the ideas start to form.
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Be prepared. Can we ever be. We had lightening strike a tree twice in the same summer. Once a piece fell knocking down a young cherry tree – the other time another large trunk fell across the creek (also at the end of the yard). No one offered us any help. Hubby, sons and another friend at various times finally got a majority of the wood out of the creek. (And yes we are still cleaning up…) The only benefit is that we got and get exercise preparing the wood and using it for our fire place (though that is not our primary heating). In our all electric neighborhood we are lucky that the power lines are buried. But that doesn’t take into account where the above ground lines connect – so we still get power outages due to some storm or accidents of cars knocking down the supporting poles.
Good to be in a place with so many helping hands… that second story though… some folks just never have a nice thing to be happy about.
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I’m sad you didn’t get the support of your neighbourhood but thank heavens for family and friends at those times. It’d be more fun to get exercise in another way that’s for sure.
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Our property/creek is right on the border of two townships and a utility easement…none of which wanted to help us. But we had to take care of it because all the debris coming down the creek was getting caught right by our land. Odd what some folks toss in water and think it will just disappear. We had to tell a new neighbor a few years back that the water run off drain was not the sewer for draining his lawn mower’s oils.
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It sounds like (apart from the pollution) that you live with a nice outlook. Sad other people don’t think what they are throwing out. Oil especially can harm so much wildlife in a creek.
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Our family also does hazmat or hazardous materials training… milk can be hazardous if spilled in a waterway.
I think that one neighbor just didn’t know and thought the drain went to the sewer… but it would be nice if he had found out first. Suburbs are different from cities, from farmland etc.
I do like where we live 😉 Some folks think though that they can dump their grass clippings in the creek because it is ‘natural’. The only problem with that is all the chemicals they put on their lawns to keep the weeds at bay. Thinking seems to be in sort supply – sometimes.
Sounds like you run a resort? Guess for you spring will be arriving soon. Will autumn is just around the corner… it is still a tad hot – at 8:45 am it is about 90 F (32 C) this morning.
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Good on you for being so aware. Just wish there were more like you. As you say some actions are done just because people don’t know better.
Yes we are coming into Spring now. We used to have a resort but that is now in the distant past. Memories only.
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Oh that devastation, Irene, and all those trees. During the 2011 floods we were without power for six days and had some of Bec’s friends stay while they were cut off from their house. We were isolated, but only for a couple of days. Nothing like the devastation you suffered, which you have described so beautifully in your flash. And then your second one. It’s amazing what straws people will clasp at for a refund! Don’t they realise we are all in this life together. Tearing apart someone else’s livelihood is not going to improve theirs in the long run. Thanks for sharing both your stories.
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You’re welcome Norah. Really I’m like you – despite being in some bad weather I have come off relatively unscathed. I did miss those trees those. Before the storm we had no view, after we could see to the city. Now it has recovered and is quite dense bush again.
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The trees or the view? It can be a hard call, can’t it? It would be nice to have both.
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I preferred the trees. Before the storm I wasn’t aware I was living in the city. Afterwards I felt exposed. But its grown back so it was all temporary as so much is. Even human existence the way we are going.
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On that happy thought! 🙂 I love the trees and my privacy too!
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