The impending cyclone – that feeling you get in the pit of
your stomach when something significant and unknown is about to happen. It is a bit like the feeling you get before
going to a job interview or going to the dentist.
That ominous white blob on the satellite photographs that
slowly crawls in your general direction.
It is a time when you give thanks to the modern marvels of technology
such as the internet so you can follow every centimetre of the cyclone’s
progress.
Of course a good way of dealing with this concern is to keep
as busy as possible so you don’t have time to think about things too much. That is generally fairly easy as there are
always plenty of jobs to do:
-
Tying down the windmills around the property
-
Tying down the sheds
-
Putting all the vehicles undercover
-
Cleaning up around the homestead so that there
is no debris lying around.
Our animals are always our primary consideration on the
station. The cattle generally do a good
job of looking after themselves. They
get in amongst the trees to shelter from the wind where possible.
As the cyclone approaches we all start to sweat on each
update from the weather bureau – has the cyclone changed direction? Will we get more wind or less? How much rain will we get?
The weather bureau issued a warning about storm surges along
the coast. Our homestead is situated
about 7 kilometres from the ocean. Prior
to the commencement of the strong winds, we could hear the ocean from the
homestead – the constant roar sounded much like an aircraft in the
distance.
Tropical Cyclone Lua passed near us without causing too many
problems. It was certainly very windy
with the house I was sheltering feeling like it was shaking in the wind. The photos of the palm trees give a good idea
that it was very windy.
The biggest problem turned out to be all the debris which
accumulated around the homestead.
Cyclones are part of the fabric of life in the north of
Western Australia. Between Broome and
Exmouth is the most cyclone prone coastline in Australia.
It doesn’t make it any less frightening when it happens but
at least we know we can prepare well when the next one happens.
