Calling cards 1

It’s been a topsy turvy kinda week, this week.

And it’s all Marcia‘s fault!

The Tropical Cyclone with the Wandering Tendancies sure left her calling card on Central Queensland.

We visited Rockhampton mid-week. A terrible time to visit there, with so many homes and businesses still without power, but as I had already postponed my treatment once (the original would have been RIGHT when the cyclone hit Rocky) the visit had to go ahead.

I had Violet and Dash with me – the latter because his ‘boarders long weekend’ turned from three days to ten with his school among those seriously affected by this mega storm.

We were VERY VERY lucky to nab a room at a great riverside accomodation venue for two nights and we completed a multitude of appointments (medical, optical and orthodontic) and absorbed the full impact of TC Marcia’s calling cards…

The view from our room – a wide brown debris-filled Fitzroy river, five days post-cyclone!  Cannot imagine what it was like the day after…

It was driving around to our appointments that the devestation became more apparent… (forgive the iphone-through-the-window photos shot mostly by Violet as I drove and pointed out each downed bit of foliage).

I could NOT believe how many trees had been uprooted. BIG trees.  The debris had already been cleared somewhat, onto verges to allow traffic on 70% of roads…

The wind must’ve been horrendous.  I was amazed how many roofs were INTACT given the state of these trees.

Rocky Grammar School, whose legendary ‘enchanted forest’ entrance was pruned severely by Marcia. What a MESS! (Since cleared with the help of staff and many day students, I believe).

I am sure many vehicles ended up like this one…

And pretty much EVERY street looked like this…

While we were there, trucks began picking up the piles of branches and logs, moving them to the showgrounds…

This was a morning’s work – I wonder what the final pile looked like?

🙁

We heard some awful stories about people being looted as power outages of more than a week were experienced by much of the city, of homes ransacked as people slept in their backyards trying to deal with the steamy heat typical of Rockhampton.  So many people were clearly sleep-deprived with temps soaring into the high 30’s (C) with extreme humidity.  Many were also in shock, not knowing where to begin cleaning up or when they could go back to work as they cleaned out hot refrigerators.

However there were also some really lovely examples of the best of human nature.

The sign below was snapped in Allenstown Shopping Centre, where an unused area had been rigged with portacots, TV’s and tables and chairs (in air-conditioning) for parents to give their exhausted, overheated offspring some respite.  Along with a phone charging station.

I heard of many shops who, as soon as power was restored to their street, immediately offered the same thing. Air-conditioning and power outlets for phone charging.

Pretty darned awesome.

This note, posted at McDonalds, really made me smile.

Whoever you are Jenny, you’re a bloody champion.

And on a personal note, we felt similar generosity from Quest Apartments who (when finding out my situation and that our previously booked accommodation elsewhere had been cancelled at the last minute due to the power outages) moved mountains to find an air-conditioned room for us.  A very, very nice air-conditioned room.  They have never had more grateful clients!

Of course, TC Marcia also left her mark on our place, three hours to the south and several categories lower on the cyclone scale.  I have more of that to come.

But first, the front page that horrified my husband:

To explain: on being asked to share a couple of our images with the Queensland Country Life (imagining a photo page inside to showcase the range of damage across the Central Queensland region), I was gob-smacked to learn that this shot of Mr Incredible looking forlornly at our flooding creek was the cover pic this week!  My husband (very much aware of how so many others have suffered such enormous losses) was a bit embarrassed.

We were cut off by floodwaters for a few days, and have lost paddock roads and many fences, but our structures have held up … and (for the first time ever) our power, telephone and internet hardly missed a beat.

Pretty darned lucky, really.

🙂

Next post: Marcia’s calling cards in our corner of the world .