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Hugs electricity
Feb. 3rd, 2005 12:40 pmHope the Melbournites are still afloat (120mm (nearly 5 inches) in 24 hours, a record), and the Sydneyites are grounded.
12.5 hours without power...from about 4:40pm yesterday to 5:05am this morning.
Sydney and surroundings got hit by a severe line of storms yesterday arvo. Severe damage particularly in areas of NW Sydney and the Central Coast (golf ball sized hail). The Ryde area was particularly badly hit, a primary school lost large sections of roof, streets of damage.
We survived the first cell, lots of rain, lightening and thunder, but not extreme. Then a bit of a lull, dad took my sister around the road for tutoring (she's the tutor), and in that time, when it was only really raining and not overly hard, we lost power. Didn't make sense.
Then just before he got back, we got hit by the second cell. Heavy rain, swirling winds, closer thunder and lightening, and just as he was pulling in, decent sized hail.
Called in the blackout once it calmed down a little. Waited and waited and waited...called several times, we weren't mentioned on the various recorded messages which went on for several minutes. Most of the Central Coast and NW Sydney were out.
Though as it turns out, our side street and its offshoots (about 180 houses) were pretty much the only ones out in our suburb. Four houses down, on the main road, they had power. This has been a constant problem for us. For some unknown reason, we aren't connected to the rest of our suburb. We're connected to the next suburb over...which lies beyond a very bushy gorge and is semi-rural. So something happens there, we go out.
Got Pizza Hut. Pulled out the Trivial Pursuit, hoping that setting it up would turn the power back on. Didn't work. Had a very amusing game (with frequent refrains from my sister that it had been produced before she was born). Running out of candles, one of the rechargeable fluorescent lights ran out of charge (for some weird reason, my initial reaction was, 'Hey! The power's back on,' then I realised it was pitch black).
Kept calling, the next suburb over was finally mentioned on the recorded message, saying 10pm restoration time...then 11:15pm, and our suburb had been added to the list, but grouped with the Ryde area instead of our own area, which made no sense. Then 12:15am...then 'unknown time period'.
Went to bed around 2am, we'd left lights on so we'd wake up when the power came back on, fridges etc needed to be checked (we'd moved the stuff from the freezer section of the fridge into the freezers). 5:05am - power!
The fridge was still surprisingly cool and everything seems to be okay, the bar fridge got an unscheduled defrost.
Since CJ and Eddie didn't get a fly yesterday (they need the lights on, otherwise they run into things, need to eat some carrot), they got one after breakfast.
Bit cooler today, was 33C (91F) yesterday, got down to around 15C (59F) overnight which is the coolest it's been in ages, around low 20s (low 70s) now.
My brother had power at his new place, so we got him to record Judging Amy (my sister and I watched it on a tiny b&w tv run by a car battery). And should've called dad's mate, who owns a generator company, to borrow one of his small generators (enough to run the fridge and a freezer, a light bulb, a tv and a vcr). He was providing power for his whole street.
Missed you all.
12.5 hours without power...from about 4:40pm yesterday to 5:05am this morning.
Sydney and surroundings got hit by a severe line of storms yesterday arvo. Severe damage particularly in areas of NW Sydney and the Central Coast (golf ball sized hail). The Ryde area was particularly badly hit, a primary school lost large sections of roof, streets of damage.
We survived the first cell, lots of rain, lightening and thunder, but not extreme. Then a bit of a lull, dad took my sister around the road for tutoring (she's the tutor), and in that time, when it was only really raining and not overly hard, we lost power. Didn't make sense.
Then just before he got back, we got hit by the second cell. Heavy rain, swirling winds, closer thunder and lightening, and just as he was pulling in, decent sized hail.
Called in the blackout once it calmed down a little. Waited and waited and waited...called several times, we weren't mentioned on the various recorded messages which went on for several minutes. Most of the Central Coast and NW Sydney were out.
Though as it turns out, our side street and its offshoots (about 180 houses) were pretty much the only ones out in our suburb. Four houses down, on the main road, they had power. This has been a constant problem for us. For some unknown reason, we aren't connected to the rest of our suburb. We're connected to the next suburb over...which lies beyond a very bushy gorge and is semi-rural. So something happens there, we go out.
Got Pizza Hut. Pulled out the Trivial Pursuit, hoping that setting it up would turn the power back on. Didn't work. Had a very amusing game (with frequent refrains from my sister that it had been produced before she was born). Running out of candles, one of the rechargeable fluorescent lights ran out of charge (for some weird reason, my initial reaction was, 'Hey! The power's back on,' then I realised it was pitch black).
Kept calling, the next suburb over was finally mentioned on the recorded message, saying 10pm restoration time...then 11:15pm, and our suburb had been added to the list, but grouped with the Ryde area instead of our own area, which made no sense. Then 12:15am...then 'unknown time period'.
Went to bed around 2am, we'd left lights on so we'd wake up when the power came back on, fridges etc needed to be checked (we'd moved the stuff from the freezer section of the fridge into the freezers). 5:05am - power!
The fridge was still surprisingly cool and everything seems to be okay, the bar fridge got an unscheduled defrost.
Since CJ and Eddie didn't get a fly yesterday (they need the lights on, otherwise they run into things, need to eat some carrot), they got one after breakfast.
Bit cooler today, was 33C (91F) yesterday, got down to around 15C (59F) overnight which is the coolest it's been in ages, around low 20s (low 70s) now.
My brother had power at his new place, so we got him to record Judging Amy (my sister and I watched it on a tiny b&w tv run by a car battery). And should've called dad's mate, who owns a generator company, to borrow one of his small generators (enough to run the fridge and a freezer, a light bulb, a tv and a vcr). He was providing power for his whole street.
Missed you all.
