A big scary bugger!

Well I guess you have heard that we are facing down one of the biggest cyclones to ever hit this country. It is bigger than Tracy that wiped Darwin off the face of the map in 1974. As a result of that storm however, building standards were ramped up, and most houses can withstand a big storm up to category 4. This one will be a 5, so I really feel for those of our fellow Queenslanders further north. Here we are safe as we are some 500klm away, and they are expecting only a blow in the region of a category 1 or 2 which is scary enough but not threatening to either life or property if we are safe indoors, which we are now. The only concern is storm surge and they are unsure how big that would be. We are safe from that where we are as well. We are in a new house on non low lying ground. Nothing in Mackay could be called "higher" ground!
We have our emergency kit packed in case we have to evacuate. All we need to add is a bag of clothes each and the car fridge, which we won't pack till later, when we have the latest tracking and likelihood of necessity. We have sandbagged and duct taped up the back door. Due to a buiding fault yet to be rectified we get quite a lot of water ingress in this door. It leads to the garage so not devastaing, just bloody annoying.

We have taken the outdoor stuff indoors. The outdoor set is all that is left as it takes up heaps of room. We will take it in when it either gets dark or too windy to ignore. The spa will be ok, we will take in the top as that will blow away otherwise.

Just before midday at high tide, we went to the harbour with a last coffee before we bunkered down. The waves were already buiding and it was already very windy.

Quite a few cars were coming out for a look. The rain is starting now too, they are saying we can expect 600 to 700ml. That will cause flooding, as the river is already in flood from Cyclone Anthony's rain last Sunday.

We are in for a wild ride, will keep you posted while we have power.