The Weather Bureau is warning of the approach of Tropical Cyclone Bianca, heading for the South West of WA and due to cross the coast early Sunday morning. At the moment the prediction is for a Category One Cyclone by the time it reaches us, with winds of 100-120k per hour and possible flooding of low lying areas.This is pretty rare in these parts. The last one was in the 1970s and caused much destruction and the loss of 5 lives. I think we should take the warning seriously, and prepare for it, even though most of us haven't had much experience of it. Those who live in the North West of WA are much better at this than we are. My DD and I have just had a talk in which we tried to remember what the people of the north usually do when on 'cyclone watch'.
So today my DD will take down our shade sails and the temporary shade structures we have built over the veggie gardens. We will put away loose objects and lift the cafe blinds on the patio.
I will make sure we have some batteries for a radio. We will begin an emergency box in which we have a few important papers and -perhaps by tonight-a disc of scanned documents which we will want to have on hand.
Should the power supply be affected by strong winds (the most likely scenario for disruption is power poles down) then we have lots of candles. As we have gas for cooking we would probably be able to keep on cooking even without the electricity, and we always have the barbeque for back up. I have a well stocked pantry and the fridge and freezers would be Ok for a few hours at least.
I hope all of this is not necessary. I hope that Sunday morning comes quietly with a bit of welcome rain. With the stories from Queensland, Victoria and NSW lately, however, we are all more aware than ever that the weather in this country can be wild and disruptive, so I guess we are all taking the warnings to be prepared much more seriously than we would perhaps have done so in the past.
I hope that those of you my readers who are also in these parts are prepared for this event, and that we are all safe with our loved ones on Sunday night.
2 comments:
Hi, seems unbelievable that we could be having a cyclone cross the coast this far down south. Both my children and i will be doing the same as you and your daughter - cleaning up the yard and making sure there is nothing laying around that could become missiles in the strong wind. Apparently the old timers in our town are worried because this January has been very similar to January 1955 when our town received 6 inches of rain and flooded. We had a small flood here two years ago in March and that was bad enough. So i hope the old timers have got it wrong. Just some gentle soaking rain would be nice. We had a thunderstorm at 2am and another awhile ago, got a few heavy showers out of that.
We have enough food, torches/candles and batteries so i guess it is a matter of waiting to see what Mother Nature has in store for us now. Still very hot here, how about where you are?
Lets hope cyclone Bianca peters out.
Sharon
Have just checked the weather, more rain and possible gusty winds this afternoon. Sky looks ominous, certainly more rain to come, wind is picking up out there. Lets hope it fizzles out some more before this afternoon. If you haven't had any rain yet i hope you get some...just not too much.
Take care
Sharon
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