WELL !

So you know that tiny bit of hail I mentioned earlier? It turned into a storm that put about half of Perth out of power. I still actually don't have power at home, but my uni has power now.

Things that happened while I was home alone:
- blackout
- a bit of hail. Hailstones not particularly big, but were hitting with so much force it sounded like they were going to put a hold through my metal veranda.
- ripped a piece of wood attached to the fence clean in half.
- a crapload of really loud thunder and lightning
- a lot of water, to the point it started seeping into the carpet out back. We used to have a pond, but we filled it in with a pile of sand. There was a huge pool of water there, and a lot of random crap started floating into it, and has now been dumped there. A lot of dead palm leaves got dumped all over our house.
- thankfully, the really tall trees around my house got cut down, so no falling trees.
- candles for light
- ambulance sirens. Mum still not back yet.
- texts to tasogareika going AHHHHHHHH
- mum returns safe and sound (but with no food) !
- no food except 1 tiny tin of tuna and bread we had to defrost. Mum ate biscuits for dinner :<
- man, nights are really boring with no electricity

Things mum told me happened when she was driving through the storm:
- traffic lights were dead
- lots of rain, lots of water on the road, everyone drives slowly.
- she stuck really close to a bus. When the bus goes at a traffic light, everyone follows. When the bus stops, everyone stops. Everyone gives way to the fucking bus, man.
- lots of cars stalled
- emergency services were in place very quickly

Things other people told me:
- a huge part of Perth lost power
- two of the people I hang out with were completely unaffected ! 1) because they have underground powerlines 2) because they live in freaking whoop whoop, man.
- my university was hit by the blackout. Alarms were ringing. Apparently one of the buildings got struck by lightning, too.
- computer labs in uni were getting flooded. A bunch of the guys used tables to stop the flood waters and used bins to bail out the water. The carpet is still wet and apparently has soap suds
- the ceiling of one of the major shopping centres collapsed. People were supposed to be evacuated, but because it was storming outside (the evacuation location) no one had any idea where to go. Apparently some people were running around yelling "help! help!"

Things I saw on the bus to uni:
- some house fences were smashed from trees being split in
- the field where my bus stop is was littered with huge branches that were ripped off from the trees. Very glad I wasn't walking home in that weather.
- piles of dirt in random places
- trees near my shopping centre were uprooted. One of them also ripped up like, gas pipes.
- power still not back up in lots of places, so policemen were redirecting traffic.
- UNI HAS POWER. SWEET COOKED FOOD I HAVE MISSED YOU SO.

There's also a Facebook group called I survived the Great Storm of Perth 22/3/2010. For bonus funny, it was created at 5pm, i.e. before the storm was over.

Edit: Bonus amusement by mentions of rain at the top of my f-list

Storm update!

I CAN HAS POWER ! We're pretty lucky, all our food seems to be okay except for the milk and the ice cream (which we pigged out on before it could go bad). The storm was more of an inconvenience than anything disaster level, so now people just have funny storm stories to tell each other.

Like one of mum's workmates, who drove to some place and saw that the parking lot was empty and went to take a spot. Except the reason the parking lot was empty was because it was flooded. PRETTY EXCITING FEW DAYS!

Edit: Apparently the storm was the worst Perth has had in 50 years. Over $100 millionn in damage, some places were flooded 4ft deep, an apartment block got hit by a landslide, hailstones punched through the windscreens of some cars. Now I feel like I dodged a bullet !