Clinton's work notified last week that a tropical cyclone was likely on Monday the 30th or Tuesday the 31st. We started preparing over the weekend, even more so once it looked as though it was headed straight for Karratha. However, the cyclone's path changed and ended up coming through the middle of Karratha and Port Headland, with neither of us getting the eye of the cyclone. It was still a category 3 cyclone though and we experienced winds up to 130km per hour. Apparently the eye did touch Roeburn and Wickham and they experienced winds up to 180km per hour!
On Sunday the weather started to turn in the late afternoon and a dust storm blew in that evening. Trent very kindly helped Clinton tie everything down and clear away toys etc in the backyard. They were sweating hard by the time they finished as it was getting very humid.
Sunday night's dust storm
Trent and Clint put new anchor points in the cement and tied down the boat. However, on Monday morning Emi offered to put our boat in her husband's work shed . We were grateful for this option because it would be much safer in there.
We went to red alert fairly early on Monday which meant Clinton had the day off work. The weather was actually quite nice and the kids had fun playing in the rain. Then at about 6.30pm the wind started to pick up. By bedtime the wind was getting pretty wild and we woke up several times in the night to the wild wind and noises from the cyclone passing though. The kids slept through the whole thing though! We lost power in the middle of the night and it wasn't restored until 5pm on Tuesday afternoon. Our house was so humid inside! Harrison and Sienna had to keep themselves busy with Lego and puzzles.
Our storm damage...we were pretty lucky it wasn't too severe
Our frangipani tree fell onto our clothesline - which is now crushed. Such a shame for the tree and I loved that hills hoist!
Clint was cleaning up lots of leaves!
An uprooted tree behind our fence
Once we were off red alert and were able to go outside again, we took a drive. We wanted to see how the town had faired but also wanted to be in an air conditioned car because it was so hot inside! On our drive we passed the salt flats - covered in red, muddy water! Normally they are so white!
Clinton drove into the Burrup Peninsula to see how much water was around. We found this waterfall, it's normally completely dry so it was so cool to see flowing water here.
We stopped at Deep Gorge to see if there was water there too
This is also normally dry
When Harrison and I got back to the car, Clinton said Alissa had vomited! So we drove home and I put her to bed, when I got her up she'd vomited again. I hope she's not sick on her birthday tomorrow.
