The fury of  what I can only describe as being  akin to a tornado battered our property late afternoon on December 28.  In a scary five minutes it managed to wreak havoc.  It  ripped healthy limbs from solid old gum trees and strewn them several metres away including under our veranda. Our spacious lawn area was covered in leafy branches and the canopy of our majestic gum had been shredded to pieces leaving it to look rather sparse. A mix of hail, rain and extreme winds hit the house horizontally, tossing my pot plants asunder and blowing the outdoor furniture down the paddock. It was wild. So much water was coming in under the doors, that I had to use nearly every towel I owned on the sodden carpets.  It wasn’t safe to venture outdoors. Then as quickly as it came, the storm abated leaving just drizzle and a huge mess to clean up.

Fortunately, I had grabbed my two cats prior to the onslaught. The day had been muggy and oppressive, so a storm wasn’t unexpected given the clouds that rolled in later. But this was nothing, I had experienced before. My husband was down in the city working so I didn’t get to share this with him until much later. When it was calmer and safer I took a walk outside. I was gob-smacked at the damage to our trees. Our olive tree and weeping cherry were  spilt through the centre. My exercise ball was over the fence in my neighbour’s paddock. The cover over our rain water tank pump had been blown off some distance away. In my previous post, I talked about the damage to our driveway from a previous storm; well it has got a whole lot worse now. Just waiting for a very busy local guy to come and fix it.

Neighbours rang to see if we were OK. One family had lost all their chickens and another couple got the brunt of the storm with huge trees uprooted, gates ripped off their hinges and the well-maintained grape vines battered beyond belief. The storm was fairly localised.  The following day, I could see where numerous trees had been uprooted or branches snapped off in a row and the next row of trees left untouched. Sadly, I did hear a nearby property reported loss of cattle and someone else heard a horse had died as well. Given the large number of cattle and horses in the area, it was amazing there were not more losses.

We did feel for our builder and neighbour, who unfortunately had a tree collapse on the roof of his house and work ute. Like good neighbours people rallied round to lend him a helping hand. I had an older husband and wife team arrive with chain saw and dressed for work, help me clear some of the fallen branches and limbs while my husband was away.

The sound of chain saws can be heard throughout the valley as landholders deal with the aftermath of the storm. No shortage of wood for next winter. It has been a bit tricky trying to clean up with the heat wave and a total fire ban day as well. My husband Bolly and I were so proud of ourselves that we had done such a great job getting fire ready and this latest storm undid all that good work. At least, I’m getting a good workout by raking leaves and carting wood. I’m hoping the new year will be a bit calmer weather-wise!