Stormy Weather

We needed rain extremely badly in this part of the world but not the 35 mls we got in 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon.  The long dry spell meant the grass crackled under our feet and despite it being November, the yard seemed more like Melbourne at the end of January!

The storm hit mid afternoon on Sunday.  We had missed the warnings to get the car under cover and to batten down the hatches. It was all over in 30 minutes but the wind blew and the hail belted down.  It isn't the best photo taken through the closed window and flyscreen but the pool looked like it was in the middle of the ocean.  There were waves as huge hail stones, some getting towards the size of golf balls belted the house.

It came from the southeast so we had some protection from other houses around us.  With the strong wind and the large hail palm trees had their fronds shredded and palm tree bits floated down upon us.  As large hail hit the stones in the back yard with great force, stones were catapulted into the pool.

Anything made out of plastic was shredded.  The wind weather vane doesn't look the same any more and the plastic covers on the BBQ under the pergola were smashed. Solar powered Christmas lights were destroyed, the power plug powering the pool filter as dislodged and the few plants we have in our little backyard may need replacing.

Trish's little blue Honda Jazz has small dents all over the roof.  Hopefully "The Dent Guy" will be able to pull them all out so it is again as good as new.  We expect it will be a toss up as to whether we fix it or it goes to car insurance.  We are also hopeful the solar panels on the roof have escaped damage as well.

The hail was blown into corners around the house and built up during the storm as the photo left shows.

The worst bit was the mess that was left afterwards.  As you can imagine the pool will require several vacuums and more to get it back to its pristine condition.  But the water level is full as you could probably guess.

We saw reports on the storm on our local news and it seems there were other places on the coast which fared much worse than us.  We saw cars stopped on roads with huge holes in their windscreens caused by the hail.  Goodness only knows what other hail damage they received on top of that.

Now around 20 hours or so later the place is pretty well cleaned up.  The pool filter has been cleaned once and is hard at work again.  Already dust and dirt is settling in the usual spots ready for another vacuum later today.

And tomorrow the guys are coming to install the new bench tops, dishwasher, oven and cook top. There will be an electrician and a plumber along as well.  I will ask the sparky to have a quick check of the solar panels for me as climbing ladders at my age isn't a wise thing to do.

Our neighbour will do the painting of the cupboard doors and more while we are down in Melbourne for Christmas.

Another exciting experience on the Sunshine Coast!