Adios Tropical Cyclone Carlos!!!!

Darwin, Australia
Thursday, February 17, 2011

What a difference 10 hours can make. As I headed to bed last night the wind was howling and the rain was falling. Things appeared to be vamping up again. This morning I woke up to.......well sunshine.

I have survived my first cyclone. Tropical Cyclone Carlos only managed to gain enough strength to be a category one but that was enough for me. He kind of sat over the Darwin area since Tuesday. A lot of rain, a lot of wind and a lot of downed trees but other than that the area has come out of it quite well.

This tree is sitting on top of the bench I usually sit on while waiting for the bus after work. I'm super glad I wasn't there when this fell over.

The ground is pretty saturated (we got about 400 to 700mm of rain over 3 days depending on your source. Either way that is a lot of rain) and the root system of trees is pretty shallow here, which meant it didn't take a lot of wind to knock over some really big trees. The cyclone warning has been cancelled and the storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression (as of 0800 this morning) but there is still a weather alert in effect. Basically that means more rain.

This was blocking the access road to my office when I tried to get to work on Wednesday. The Paramedic was hurt but was released from hospital and is recovering. The patient was uninjured. Can you say wrong place wrong time!!!!

Our apartment had only a few casualties......the sunflowers on the rooftop patio and the vegetables in our small patio garden......and one corner of our sunshade which ripped away (but made it much easier to get the rest of it down). Other than that the whole cyclone warning, buses not running, can't go to work, panic in the streets, was just a little bit.........anti-climatic. But just another experience. I can honestly say I have never seen this much rain.....and I've been in Darwin too long because I now find 26 C (79 F) cold.

But at the end of it all what's better than a rainbow? The view from the rooftop patio has never looked so good.

Julie