Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 08:54
Not the first time, and not the last.
It amazes me how people can expect instant service from volunteers.
The SES does an amazing job.
We lost our house in late 1973 to a twister. We are 6 miles/8k on the south side of the centre of
Brisbane at Moorooka. Same thing, two storms cam from the west and joined around about Oxley. Saw it happen last Sunday.
Looking at those pictures on the news of houses which are just a floor with a bit of furniture and a couple of walls reminded me of our place. It was like that.
Only a few hundred houses damaged that time.
We had 8" x 2" ironbark roof beams lifted with the whole roof and taken about 4 houses up the road. One beam about 5 metres long was punched through a besser block by about 2 metres. Didn't even crack the mortar around the besser block. Local engineer did a calc on a large
sign that pushed over and reckon it was about 160 mph winds. Just a freak storm.
Then we had the storms of the mid 80s.
Took us 6 months to rebuild, since the the flood victims of Jan 74 got priority for building materials. Hopefully it will only take a few months for these people to rebuild.
But you will never forget.
Went into the
Darwin cyclone Tracey display while I was there, with some friends. Could only last about 10 mins. Brought back too many memories. Had to leave shaking and in tears. My mother was almost killed in 73.
You learn about the mortality of life, the value of family and friends, and the uselessness of possessions. People were still dropping things in like photos 6 months later from up to 20km away. When they found a name and address.
Good to see
Brisbane weather back to normal. Amazes me all these people that complain about the unusual weather we are having, most of them have come from down south in the last 10 to 15 years.
Another worry is the number of large gums that people are growing in surburban back yards. Look at pictures of
Brisbane in the 50s and 60s and no where as many trees. For a reason, storms.
We used to have a few sheets of roofing wrapped in some trees a little way away that always creaked and banged in a storm. Only taken them 30 years to finally stop. Amazing sound, and a reminder of the storm.
Hopefully these people can move on, you have to, you have no other choice.
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