Yesterday a massive storm swept through Port Stephens around 3 pm and in 15 minutes or so caused a huge amount of damage. We lost power and have only just got it back around 4 pm today.
Apparently the storm swept up the east coast of NSW between us and the lower Hunter Valley. We don't know the details yet because we haven't had any television to watch the news.
This was the reason our power was out. The power pole is cracked and the lines are down. The crane is holding the pole up until they can erect the new one. The new power pole is lying on the ground waiting for the men to come and replace it. This is just at the bottom of our road.
@golftragic@hermann The guy in the yellow shirt sat on the pole on the ground for 2 hours waiting for the people to come and fix it. You can see his job sheet in his hand. Why he couldn't go to the next job and come back to this one later I have no idea. There was so much to clear up.
@karlow75 Thanks Kane. Yes it was pretty wild. There are hundreds of trees down and split. We were lucky we only lost a couple of branches off a couple of our trees.
@huvesaker I said oops too when I saw this and David said oops when he left the passenger window on his car open when the storm hit and the horizontal rain filled his car with water. At least I think it was oops he was saying. ha ha.
@kathiecb Considering the amount of damage we had in the area we did quite well I think. SES were on the scene straight away clearing roads of fallen trees, fixing people's roofs etc. The power was off in our area from 3 pm (16th) and this photo was taken about 9.30 am on the 17th. they had to wait though until the men came to erect the new pole. Power was back on at 4 pm. Not bad considering the rest of the damage in the area and that we live quite a way from the nearest city.
Quite a common sight in Oz during summer hey babs. I wonder when they will make it mandatory for new developments to have power underground. Nah - it will never happen.. That would make too much sense.
@terryliv All the newer houses here have power underground. It is just taht this section of the road from Nelson Bay to Salamander Bay has overheads as it is an old road. Our house is just up on the left from here and because this is where the damage was all wires in this section had to be disabled and unfortunately that fed our underground too.
@savannah51 Amazing how you take electricity for granted isn't it! Why is it that as you walk through the house in darkness, lit only by a torch, and get to the room you are aiming for, you try to switch the light on!!! ha ha.
March 19th, 2014
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