23 January 2009

Hard work cleaning up after the storm

| johnboy
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Good blow last night eh?

Sky turning weird colours, clouds straight out of a Spielberg movie, continuous rolling thunder, sheets of rain roping in from all angles. Who could ask for more?

But there’s a downside to such entertainment. The ACT Emergency Services Agency has pushed out a note on the work going into the cleanup:

    The ACT State Emergency Service (ACT SES) will continue the clean up today following last night’s storm in the Territory.

    12 crews from the ACT SES were activated last night with 105 calls for help from the public following the wild weather around 7:30pm.

    Volunteer members worked until 12:30 this morning dealing with 76 of the jobs with the help of the ACT Fire Brigade and ACT Rural Fire Service.

    The majority of the calls came from residents in Gungahlin with Harrison and Nichols the most affected. The majority of households reporting roof damage and minor flooding.

    ACT SES crews reactivated at 7:00am today to complete the jobs still outstanding from last night.

    Anyone still requiring assistance should call the ACT SES on 132 500.

    With more storms forecast in the next 24 hours, the ACT Emergency Services Agency urges residents to make sure they are fully prepared for the threat of storms.

UPDATED: Simon Corbell is congratulating his people for their efforts:

    “ACT Police and Emergency Services Minister, Simon Corbell, has congratulated the ACT Emergency Services personnel on their response to calls for assistance following last nights major storm event.

    “With over 100 call for assistance coming through following the storms passage, ACT State Emergency Services, assisted by ACT Fire Brigade and ACT Rural Fire Service have been working hard over the past 12 hours to tackle damaged roofs, fallen trees, minor flooding and other property damage,” Mr Corbell said…

    “Our volunteer and full time personnel deserve the community’s thanks for their hard work last night,” Mr Corbell said.”

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Incoming smoke again! It’s just got to me, so should be in Canberra shortly. Brought, once again, by the easterly wind coming in with cooler air. And smoke.

True, the smoke is too widespread to be from there, but I’d rather what looks like a fire be investigated than not, it’s not usual for Mt Taylor.

This smoke ain’t from Mt Taylor. it came in from the east, thickly.

There’s lights on top of Mount Taylor that look they could be fires burning, the fireys are investigating.

Darnit! Blinkin’ bloomin’ blimey! Can’t it make up its mind whether it’s going to fire or flood?

Hey Canberra, close your windows! There’s a massive cloud of bushfire smoke headed your way right now. Tehre’s a cold easterly wind blowing and it brought with it the smoke from teh bushfires. Awful stuff.

SES crews are still out today. Remember this whilst you enjoy your long weekend.

Maybe give them a wave or a quiet thank you 😉

Agreed Thumper. Helping out a mate when he needs it and expecting no thanks is a typically Australian thing to do. But say thanks anyway – it’ll make their day.

Deckard – I concur – after further educating myself as well 🙂

Well, I do keep expecting to be struck by lightning, but it hasn’t happened yet. Thumper on the other hand must have been really bad!

*chuckle*

; )

Danman said :

Ground strike lightning actually travels upwards.

And now that I’m an expert, ground strike lighting can travel both up or down.

…according to wikipedia.

Wikipedia says that a direct hit can ‘flash’ around the victim and goes into the ground, where a ground strike passes through the ground and up both feet, causing more damage. It all depends on what the ground is made of that you’re standing on.

Sand apparently is good, and wet spongy ground is very bad – like a well watered fairway or sporting ground.

GardeningGirl11:18 pm 23 Jan 09

peterh said :

Danman said :

Ground strike lightning actually travels upwards.

That humming/sizzling/crackling was the earth preparing to send a bolt up.

If you’re ever in a storm in the open and hear this, and get hairs standing on end, drop ASAP and make yourself as small as possible.

lie flat!
face down…

The version I’ve heard is crouch down on the balls of your feet, ie make yourself as small and low as possible while minimising contact with the ground?

Apparently it’s worse for you to be nearby a lightning strike rather than struck directly by the lightning.

Wow! I had no idea it could do that from so far away. I guess I always imagined that if it didn’t strike you umbrella-style like in the cartoons then you were fine. That’s amazingly powerful for it to be able to blow somebody into a wall.

Brand new jerry-built rubbish houses! Anyone with roof damage to a new house should be suing the builder into next week, there is NO excuse for it.

I was drinking beers al fresco at the Wig and Pen and thoroughly enjoyed the light, wind and rain show, especially just after the storm when a soft orange glow lit up the cityscape.

Danman said :

Ground strike lightning actually travels upwards.

That humming/sizzling/crackling was the earth preparing to send a bolt up.

If you’re ever in a storm in the open and hear this, and get hairs standing on end, drop ASAP and make yourself as small as possible.

Holy Crap! Cheers Danman

the dickson drains behind the oval were really full and fast flowing too!!!
me and the housemates enjoyed having an effective, water conservative free shower in the storm in our swimmers! was glorious and kind of scary! 🙂

bd84 said :

there wasn’t a storm down in tuggeranong last night.. a couple of lightning flashes and a tiny bit of rain about 7pm. Rained a fair bit about midnight – 1am but it was only rain.

kambah got hammered, 1st front was massive, second hit about 2am.

Danman said :

Ground strike lightning actually travels upwards.

That humming/sizzling/crackling was the earth preparing to send a bolt up.

If you’re ever in a storm in the open and hear this, and get hairs standing on end, drop ASAP and make yourself as small as possible.

lie flat!
face down…

Ground strike lightning actually travels upwards.

That humming/sizzling/crackling was the earth preparing to send a bolt up.

If you’re ever in a storm in the open and hear this, and get hairs standing on end, drop ASAP and make yourself as small as possible.

Mine goodly neighbors here in Kambah tell me it was quite a to-do here last night. I was down at Tomakin (about 2km from Mossy Point)and the place copped a severe lashing with lightning strikes abounding. The servo in the highway was in a bit of strife this morning trying to sell petrol and fishing supplies to holidaymakers without the aid of the till. The pumps were still working fine though. The proprietor told me he was out under the awning looking at the storm when the lightening hit the station. Reckons it sent him about 4 ft up in they air (and scurrying for a new pair of undies, one suspects).

An interesting thing to me is that the lightening that struck the servo came with a humming/sizzling type sound followed less than a second later by a massive thunderclap that shook our windows.

there wasn’t a storm down in tuggeranong last night.. a couple of lightning flashes and a tiny bit of rain about 7pm. Rained a fair bit about midnight – 1am but it was only rain.

Down th ebottom of Ngunnawal – near the new development on teh corner of Gunghalin Drive, near the school – there was big flows in the ditched – and due to the digging going on at the moment, there was a half ft of muddy water on the road.

Like Gungahlin Al, it didn’t seem like much of a big deal where we were in Ngunnawal. A bit of heavy sheeting rain, but nothing too dramatic.

anyone got pics they can post?

was at the pub so didnt hear anything.

there were a few traffic lights out on athlon drive near mawson – i was suprised to see that the storm water drains were hardly flowing.

Holden Caulfield1:09 pm 23 Jan 09

Firstly, three cheers for the SES crews.

Kramer said :

Interesting that they had lots of calls out in the newer suburbs, while my place in Belco copped a pretty severe lashing last night, there’s no problems from my 40 year old roof. Perhaps there’s dodgy builders/tilers/roofers operating in Gungahlin?

Less protection from the wind due to lack of mature trees I’d suggest. That and maybe it was just worse in Gungahlin.

After living previously in Nicholls, and now in the inner North, there is no doubt the winds in Gungahlin are generally much, much stronger. It can be blowing a gale in Gungahlin, yet be dead still in inner Canberra.

I was going to take some photo’s from the railway line at Queanbeyan looking out towards Sutton and Pialigo.
The sky was the wildest colours and it looked like a frosted sheet of glass heading towards Queanbeyan.
No sooner I got ready and it hit like a tidal wave.

Kangaroos were tearing around everywhere and the old Riverside Cemetery was shining and looked illuminous in the weird light. Was a beautiful view.

The worst of the storm damage was basically two streets in Harrison that got hammered and they were all roof damage of varying degrees.
The Incident Managment Team shut down at about 12:30 and when I headed home at 2am we still had crews out in the field.

Gungahlin Al said :

nothing until a decent rainfall some time in the morning. Went back to sleep so don’t know how long it lasted.

Gungahlin Al the decent rainfall that you were talking about came through at about 2:15am.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy10:00 am 23 Jan 09

Jerra copped a real flogging last night, including some big storm water flows down the reserve drainage.

No damage that I could see though. And my lawn is getting green again.

Interesting that they had lots of calls out in the newer suburbs, while my place in Belco copped a pretty severe lashing last night, there’s no problems from my 40 year old roof. Perhaps there’s dodgy builders/tilers/roofers operating in Gungahlin?

Gungahlin Al9:34 am 23 Jan 09

This Harrison person is surprised by this. I thought the north missed the worst of it. Must be places with silly tiles instead of nicely bolted down colourbond. Glad ACTEW came out last week to clear the blocked stormwater drains though…

We had some moderate wind then horizontal rain for 15 mins, then nothing until a decent rainfall some time in the morning. Went back to sleep so don’t know how long it lasted.

But my almost empty 9000L tank is chockers.

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