The Storm is Over

This is a video of Felix watching the storm start

before we all had to move away from the glass

Felix checking out the damage at the park

Wow! What a crazy couple of days. On Friday afternoon, after an overcast but very hot day, a thunderstorm started. I absolutely love watching the lightning and listening to the thunder, so I grabbed Felix and we went and sat inside our front window to watch it. Felix was absolutely loving it. He really enjoys the rain and he stood, staring out of the window. I started to take some video of him because he looked so cute, fixated with the storm, but had to turn it off quickly when the storm started to get out of control. We all  moved away from the windows, because it looked like they might actually break. The wind was crazy and I've never seen it rain so heavily.

This went on for about 45 minutes. We rushed around the house, closing doors and windows because the rain was getting in. Our windows all started leaking at the bottom, wetting the carpet and then there was water pouring down our kitchen cupboards from the ceiling. We moved all the things we didn't want getting wet and shoved towels along all the windows to soak up as much water as we could. At the height of the storm, there was a huge crack, which we assumed was just thunder, but it was actually a huge tree landing on our neighbour's roof.

Our next door neighbour's house

When the worst of it was over, we stepped outside to survey the damage and couldn't believe our eyes! There were trees down everywhere and sheets of metal from people's roofs. One persons' air conditioning unit was no longer on their roof, but on the ground instead. The people across the road had their pool cover on their roof, and heaps of people's fences were completely flattened. We realised straight away that our side gate had blown open and our dogs had got out but, thankfully, they hadn't gone too far and Nathan managed to get them back inside. Our gate doesn't shut properly any more and our side fence is on a lean, but that's nothing compared to some houses. We realised that some of the tiles on our roof had come loose in the storm, so that's why our kitchen was leaking water. Nate put them back in place before it could start raining again.

A couple of our neighbours still have massive trees on their roofs. A few doors down, their wall is looking precarious under the weight of a big tree even now, 2 days later. Across the park from our house, a two story place is missing its' roof. I can't believe that no one has been seriously hurt. It was such a strange thing to happen here.

One of the kids favourite climbing trees

It's funny how, in times like this, neighbours who have never spoken to each other all band together to help each other out. In the past couple of days, we have got to know people we had never met in the 6 1/2 years we have lived here. Everyone has been out in the street, sharing stories and pulling branches off the road. There has been a constant buzz of chain saws as trees are being cut up, and those with wood fires are stockpiling for next winter.

Our next door neighbour, who we have only spoken to twice before, was clucking over Felix; holding his hand and talking to him despite the worry of a big gum tree resting on her roof. It was lovely that he was able to make someone smile even under those circumstances.