Not sure if it’s been on the news over there but South Australia is in the middle of what they are calling a once-in-fifty-year’s storm. It started yesterday and is continuing today, though hopefully not as bad.
Yesterday was pretty grim when ALL of South Australia was without electricity for several hours from late afternoon until well into the night – in fact some areas are still without. When you consider the area of this State is (according to my usual source of information and knowledge – the good old Internet) 984,377 square kilometres it really was some outage. (Just imagine all of the British Isles, and then some, being powerless and in the dark!).
Apparently high winds had destroyed essential equipment and pow! Alice, that was it. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if those in charge of such things soon start passing the buck. (Just seen the news and apparently they have).
Heavy rain also caused flooding in many areas but him and me are fortunate in that we are too far away from creeks and rivers for this to impact on us personally – however we won’t be needing to water the garden for some time to come. I feel so sorry for the people whose homes and property have been damaged by high winds and floods. Heartbreaking for them.
Hospitals have their own back-up generators of course though some medical staff were reported to be working by torchlight and a few enterprising shops had also previously installed generators and apparently were doing a roaring trade in hot food lines.
Street lights, traffic lights, etc., etc., were all out. People were stuck in lifts – if I had been one of them it would surely have put MY lights out as over the years I have developed claustrophobia to such an extent that I just about need a tranquiliser to even get into a lift – and if I’m on my own and there’s no alternative in the way of stairs I wait until someone comes who’s also going to use it. Have been known to ask strangers passing by if they will go in the lift with me, whether they were going my way or not! Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Trams and trains had stopped running, and people in car parks in the City couldn’t get out of them. Chaos and confusion for a few hours. Like something out of a movie. We depend so much on electricity.
It’s not until such emergencies arise that you remember you really had intended to replace batteries in torches but it was a gunna intention, you were gunna do it tomorrow…….
…though by ‘borrowing’ from other equipment we managed OK.
Our hands-free phone uses power so was useless but I keep a wall phone that doesn’t and changed over to it, only to find that the landline was out. Not to worry I thought, that’s why we have mobiles. So much for that ‘thought’ because within the hour the mobile phone provider we have went down so our mobiles were out as well. Talk about feeling isolated.
We settled for sandwiches and milk (and a bar of comfort food) rather than light up the BBQ. It really was cold and miserable outside, which is not to say it wasn’t cold and miserable inside too.
Meanwhile himself, as one-eyed as ever, mumbled and grumbled about those in power (or not in power at that moment) – the people he loves to detest, especially the head honcho of the State who he blames for everything that goes wrong, so of course it was ‘his’ fault that the power was out, like he could have prevented the damage that the winds had done.
Seriously though the inconveniences him and me had through a few hours loss of power are trivial compared to what so many others have suffered because of this storm.
Well, himself has just been to the shops and come home loaded down with batteries – hate to think how much he’s spent, but at least should the need arise in the future (and most likely it will) at least there will be light……
Yesterday was pretty grim when ALL of South Australia was without electricity for several hours from late afternoon until well into the night – in fact some areas are still without. When you consider the area of this State is (according to my usual source of information and knowledge – the good old Internet) 984,377 square kilometres it really was some outage. (Just imagine all of the British Isles, and then some, being powerless and in the dark!).
Apparently high winds had destroyed essential equipment and pow! Alice, that was it. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if those in charge of such things soon start passing the buck. (Just seen the news and apparently they have).
Heavy rain also caused flooding in many areas but him and me are fortunate in that we are too far away from creeks and rivers for this to impact on us personally – however we won’t be needing to water the garden for some time to come. I feel so sorry for the people whose homes and property have been damaged by high winds and floods. Heartbreaking for them.
Hospitals have their own back-up generators of course though some medical staff were reported to be working by torchlight and a few enterprising shops had also previously installed generators and apparently were doing a roaring trade in hot food lines.
Street lights, traffic lights, etc., etc., were all out. People were stuck in lifts – if I had been one of them it would surely have put MY lights out as over the years I have developed claustrophobia to such an extent that I just about need a tranquiliser to even get into a lift – and if I’m on my own and there’s no alternative in the way of stairs I wait until someone comes who’s also going to use it. Have been known to ask strangers passing by if they will go in the lift with me, whether they were going my way or not! Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Trams and trains had stopped running, and people in car parks in the City couldn’t get out of them. Chaos and confusion for a few hours. Like something out of a movie. We depend so much on electricity.
It’s not until such emergencies arise that you remember you really had intended to replace batteries in torches but it was a gunna intention, you were gunna do it tomorrow…….
…though by ‘borrowing’ from other equipment we managed OK.
Our hands-free phone uses power so was useless but I keep a wall phone that doesn’t and changed over to it, only to find that the landline was out. Not to worry I thought, that’s why we have mobiles. So much for that ‘thought’ because within the hour the mobile phone provider we have went down so our mobiles were out as well. Talk about feeling isolated.
We settled for sandwiches and milk (and a bar of comfort food) rather than light up the BBQ. It really was cold and miserable outside, which is not to say it wasn’t cold and miserable inside too.
Meanwhile himself, as one-eyed as ever, mumbled and grumbled about those in power (or not in power at that moment) – the people he loves to detest, especially the head honcho of the State who he blames for everything that goes wrong, so of course it was ‘his’ fault that the power was out, like he could have prevented the damage that the winds had done.
Seriously though the inconveniences him and me had through a few hours loss of power are trivial compared to what so many others have suffered because of this storm.
Well, himself has just been to the shops and come home loaded down with batteries – hate to think how much he’s spent, but at least should the need arise in the future (and most likely it will) at least there will be light……