We're not in Kansas anymore...or are we?????

We came to Australia in search of adventure and so far we haven't been disappointed. 

Even this week as we move to our ocean front unit we will be "dodging" our first cyclone ever. Cyclone is what the Southern Hemisphere calls a hurricane. Oh *%@#, (that's in case someone's darling children are reading this blog), that's not good! This little storm is named Marcia, like the oldest girl in the "Brady Bunch" which is on regularly here. Looks like Bundaberg is in the target of the storm, landing near Rockhampton and moving south or right over Bundy.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-18/cyclone-marcia-forms-off-queensland-coast/6137986

We are just north of Brisbane on the east coast.




Bundaberg has had 2, 100 year rains in the last 4 years. (Does this sound familiar Milwaukee?) The flooding was the result of a cyclone that spun around and got "stuck" just west of Bundaberg and just dumped inches and inches of rain on the area.

They measure in metric, and there was 300-400mm of rain that fell. That's 12-15+ inches of rain people! Some of the pictures were just

unbelievable.

This was the 2013 storm, but there was a 2011 storm that was just about as destructive.

Many of the sports facilities were damaged beyond repair with the first flood, then the second one wiped out any resources to rebuild, yet again. To say people take these little weather events seriously is an understatement. They can be very dangerous, and just like in the US, the TV coverage is constant.

We are deciding whether to make the move into the unit on Friday, or wait a day or two. The underground garage has us a bit worried if the rain is heavy, we had a car drowned in a garage in Madison during a freak thunderstorm. I always think about lower levels and things stored in lower levels....that's all I'll say about that.


Day 1 Cyclone Watch is proceeding. So far, at noon, some wind but no rain. made landfall north of us and slowed quite a bit. I drove to Bargara to collect the keys to our unit but will see about moving things in tomorrow, or Saturday here. From what I understand about this storm, the worst could be later today as it moves south and weakens. Like with a lot of what we have experienced
about Australia, things will happen on their own time. So either this storm will come, or it won't.

And it didn't! We had a large rainfall in the evening, and some wind, but we missed the storm. The towns of Yeppoon and Rockhampton bore the brunt of Mar-See-A (that's how they pronounce it) and the pictures today showed the force the storm.

We are grateful for being spared this new adventure as the places hit are still without power and it will take weeks for them to get back their infrastructure. I'm sorry this will be a boring blog about the cyclone that wasn't, but happy to report it.