Right around Australia Day some pretty wild weather hit our lovely corner of the world, thanks to ex-tropical cyclone Oswald. We expected a lot of rain (that is typical when a cyclone fizzles out up north and travels down the coast as a rain depression) but a few areas actually got tornadoes ... which took many people by surprise.
It isn't unheard of to get tornadoes in Australia, but they are smaller and less common that the ones we hear about in America's "tornado alley".
Thankfully, although we were warned to expect a tornado, we didn't get one where we live. However, there was plenty of wind and rain about. I'm not ashamed to admit that we had a bag with blankets and torches in our bathroom, just in case we needed to shelter there in a hurry.
What we did get in our town was flooding. Those of us who are locals are well aware that flooding is a semi-regular occurrence here and, luckily, most are prepared for such an event. Shops and businesses that are most at risk are emptied out with military precision (thanks to years of practice!) and, afterwards, everything seems to be back in place and businesses up and running again in no time. There is no shortage of helpers and everyone works together - it's one of the things I admire most about our town. There are other places that were hit much harder and weren't able to prepare for it ... they are the communities I really feel for.
Here in the Crazy Cave, we didn't suffer too much. Our house is not flood-prone (apart from a section of our yard right down near the back fence) and, despite being cut off from much of the town, we were still able to get to our local shops by taking a different route to get there - although a lot of the shelves were empty. We lost power only briefly, unlike some others we know who were without electricity for days. As an unexpected bonus, I had my sister here for company - she had come up from Brisbane for a quick visit and found herself cut off by the flood water for a few days, but she assured me she really didn't mind.
We even became an unofficial "wildlife sanctuary" for a short time! From a variety of birds taking shelter on our back verandah during the initial storm to a young frill necked lizard we found in the back yard afterwards. We thought it was injured, but the poor thing turned out to be mainly waterlogged - after spending the night in a warm dry box, it looked much better the next day when the rain stopped and we released it.
There was also some frog spawn in our pond, which may have floated away with all the rain if our teenager hadn't rescued it - we now have tadpoles hatching in a bucket, also to be released once they are frogs.
The only way in which the flood really impacted on us was that local schools were closed due to flooding and electricity issues, so the kids got an extra day on top of their six week summer holidays. Funny, I didn't hear them complaining about that! It seems even the boring old school holidays can be livened up with a bit of water around the place and some stranded wildlife to look after.
Now that the river has gone down (in our town at least) and school has gone back, I for one am looking forward to things getting back to our crazy version of normal.
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