2011 - A whirl wind of emotions!

Ok...so this is a section of an entry I was to put up months ago, but couldn't bring myself to complete it! At the time I thought the worst thing to happen in my life was what you are about to read, but unfortunately this was not so... I will leave that for my next entry! Following is a touch of what 2011 was like in our lives and many others in our little town.

My last blog was on the 17th January 2011. During this month we sat and watched in horror as SE QLD was inundated with an inland tsunami and massive floods, where homes and lives were destroyed. Little did we know, we were in for our own destruction both physically and emotionally in the months to follow. In the days following my last blog I continued to become excited at the prospect of my first year of teaching. Although this came with some apprehension, it was the beginning of something exciting and new.

News came in that a cyclone was brewing off the coast! This was nothing to worry about, but like many, my stomach sank as I knew the days ahead would involve cleaning up the yard and preparing! Simon had just finished our new extension on the carport, but still needed to put up the ceiling. As the hours progressed, Simon climbed onto the new roof and screwed each sheet for extra bracing. This little cyclone was not going to bother us too much, but we had a strange feeling about it. On Monday the 31st January at 11:53am cyclone Anthony crossed the Queensland coast near Bowen as a category 1. We had braced for the worst and thank goodness got very little out of it. This seemed like any typical wet season in Far North Queensland!
 
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-01-30/cyclone-anthony-barrelling-towards-queensland/1922462

Excitement set in and off to school we went. Finally...I had made it...I was actually a teacher!! I was scared but excited. Tuesday 1st February 2011, Week two term one and my feet had not hit the ground. There were whispers of another cyclone off the coast, but it was ages away. I did not worry about this at all as we thought the worst was behind us! Then...word from the science guru's at school sent shivers up my spine... was this it??? Was this the one everyone had dreaded since Larry? Yes, there was a cyclone over Fijian waters and it was massive! It was heading in our direction. But, where would it cross? How strong would it be? It was already a category 3!! Think positive, I kept telling myself!

I continued that day with my teaching. An emergency meeting had been called. The school was on alert and we were in the cyclones path as it was soooo massive. I heard someone say its the biggest in history, over 500klm in diameter! My heart sank...even if it did not cross near us, we would get some pretty big winds and rain out of this! School was packed up, computers, personal belongings, books etc all placed in the middle of all rooms. I gathered garbage bags and my year 12's and I starting covering the computers in the computer lab. The kids were saying to me... "Miss there is no point, it won't come near us as usual"... then "Miss do you think we are going to get hit?" I am a first year, a mother, a wife and a daughter... I was thinking of the what if's but did not want to scare anyone. I carefully answered with little emotion in my voice "We will be fine", something I had heard my mother say to me in the past when things weren't so fine, or I when was worried about something.

What was this to bring? How were we going to cope! Stay positive...we can get through this.  The lunch bell had rung and the playground was buzzing with little voices asking many questions. Some we feared to answer!
I made my way to the English staff room where everyone was standing around chatting.  I was asked how I was going.  I all of a sudden couldn't keep my emotions in, I blurted out "I'm good, but I don't know how I am going to help Simon tie down all our building stuff and I am feeling a little useless!"  My Head of Department looked at me and firmly said to three male teachers in the room, "You three need to go straight after school and help Simon tie down the stuff and prepare the Knight house!" I looked at her with a smile as a tear escaped my eyelid! "Thank you Kathy, I don't know what to say!"  I turned and looked a the guys in the room and they were smiling a smile that I will never forget.  It was the type of smile that made everything seem ok, even if it wasn't.  We completed our day of preparation and all headed home.

The guys from school came over and tied down all the building gear with ropes and star pickets, even the trampoline was tipped on its top and pegged down.  The swings were shoved in the mass of trees down the paddock and all the bits and pieces were put away in the shed.  The shed roller door was braced with L shape brackets drilled into the outside and furniture and stuff put up against it on the inside...the outside was prepared!! Well at least we were prepared as much as we could be. That night we tried to stay calm for our boys and each other.  We slowly and carefully prepared our home. We watched the BOM site hoping and praying with all our might, this thing would turn around and bugger off. It had been named - YASI...a name we would never forget.

After very little sleep, we woke to a day of sunshine and silence. We woke Wednesday 2nd February 2011,  to the news... YASI was a category 4 and intensifying. Could this get any worse?? The phone rang off the hook with family members begging us to get in the car and drive south. We had to make a decision, the roads were to be shut.  If we go North it may hit up there. If we go south it may hit down there. If we went south we may not get accommodation as there were so many people evacuating.  We may get caught in our car somewhere along the way.  What was the best option? Was there a good option? Surely it won't hit us here, in little old Tully?? We had left it a day too late I thought!  We should have gone yesterday while we could!!  We made the decision to stay. We were not in the firing line thank goodness, but we would get a fair amount of wind from it!  We prayed it would cross south of us... it is well known that the winds north of a cyclone are less ferocious than to the south.  A category 5?? What in the world were were thinking when we decided to stay?  How could I do this to my family? How could we be so stupid? These were all the things running through my mind! But strangely enough, I was calm. Until, I received a phone call from my ex husband who is a police officer in the NT checking to see if we were going to evacuate.  I informed he we would be staying.  He hung up the phone.  Another phone call from him an hour later, telling me that I was stupid for making the decision to stay! He told me NT police had put a team of Victim Identification Officers together to attend our area after the cyclone passes. He explained this was where police officers come in and assist in the recovery of bodies. I was mortified and from that point on I was a mess.  How could someone tell me something so horrible...but it was reality. Fear had set in!  We HAD made the wrong decision and I regretted it from every moment on! I was on and off facebook, uploading photos, chatting to people and sending an email that I thought I would never in my life have to send.  Justine Lowis would understand, she went through Larry! Although living in Toowoomba now and not having seen her since school, I had chatted online for the past few years with her.  What I was about to tell her, I could not bring myself to tell my very dear best friend Teen.  It was something no one would ever want to do! But I had to do it.



Mum and dad made the decision to come and stay in our place as they lived at Tully Heads, they brought their bird JJ and dog Lulu.  With them came Jim from Tully heads and our dear old friend Grandma Jan from Hull Heads.  Word was, the storm surge was going to be massive and none of their homes would survive, even if the cyclone did not come near us! Preparation on the house continued, tape on the windows, pictures off the walls, important documents in zip lock bags & food prepared. I could not believe how slow the day was going! I also couldn't believe how the weather could be so clear. Our boys were playing in the mud, something I don't let them do due to the lepto virus up in FNQ.  My thoughts were, 'this could be our last day on this earth, why not let them play!' We sat and ate lunch while watching our beautiful boys play in the mud, making mud pies and building roads for their cars; without a care in the world. We enjoyed each others company and chatted to each other about old times.

Lunch and contemplating life...

The boys trying to take their minds off things

Our bunker in the walk in robe

A nice hot dinner...the last for a while!

It was getting dark now and the wind had started to pick up and the rain was getting heavy. I wondered how bad this was going to be.  We had done all we could to protect our family & friends now.  My dad kept reassuring me, "we will be ok, this is a great new steal frame home honey, it will withstand it!" At that point I wished I could share my fathers positive thoughts, but reality was, we all had no idea of how big this thing was heading our way. We still held hope it would go south of us! Then the news came in...it was heading directly for Tully.  The media did not name Tully to start with, the reports were, it's going to hit somewhere between Innisfail and Cardwell. THAT WAS US!!! What were we to do? We tucked our babies up in the wardrobe and tried to get them to go to sleep.  It was 12:30am and the lights were still on and Prime Minister was on the TV reporting on how bad this was going to be. Then the whirring of the wind increased and the stones from the road were starting to hit the house. This was only the start!

We finally lost the power and our positive thoughts went with it.  I began to dry reach from anxiety. The kids had woken from the sound of the wind and things hitting our house. YASI now here... but it would seem like hours before the eye would pass over us, giving us a small amount of time to catch our breath.  We were tucked up in our little wardrobe, while Mum, Dad, Jan & Jim faced it in the lounge, hall & another bedroom.  I was not comfortable being separated from my parents, but knew I had to protect my own babies.  It was hot in the wardrobe and the sound was unbearable.  I did not feel comfortable at all in there.  We made a decision to move to the other end of the house into Jaelyn's room.  We had just moved the kids out and started to come back for more when there was an almighty bang.  Both my parents had entered the room we had just left, I could hear yelling, but could not make out any words from the sound of the wind and rain.  I ran to the room praying my parents were ok. As I entered the room, my husband Simon was trying to close a louver that had been hit by something outside and my parents were moving our bed and furniture away from the wall that had a waterfall coming down it. As they fought with the window I ran back to my children comforting them as they were all screaming.  I reassured them everyone was ok and we would get through this.  At the same time, I shoved all three of my babies under the timber bed that was wedged up against the wall. Simon came in with the mattress from the wardrobe and placed it over the bed to help protect them even more.  It was quieter in the room. I lay down next to my beautiful babies and spoke quietly to them saying "the three of you need to stay together.  You need to hold onto each other and not let go.  We all love you lots and lots and no matter what happens to Mummy and Daddy, stay holding on to each other...never let go. Promise?" They were all calm and said they felt safe under the bed. But my heart was aching, thinking about what I had just told them.  We had made a terrible mistake...we should have gone!

The whole time this was going on, we still had mobile reception and could speak through text with Teen my bestie and Simo's dad.  They were keeping us informed as to where the cyclone was and how far away the eye was. Minutes seemed to take hours. 'What's the time?' I asked '1:05' Simo replied. An hour seemed to pass 'what's the time?' I asked again '1:10am' Simo said with a look of shock in his eyes.  I was laying on the floor when a strange feeling came over me.  I made a promise to god then and there.  This sense was like a sense of sinking into the ground and a sense of relief and relaxation.  It was the strangest thing.  I then thought, I am at peace with this, if I die now I am at peace with where I am going. Then finally the eye came over. We are told in the lead up to cyclone season, when the eye comes over stay inside.  My father, Jim and my dear husband needed to go outside during the eye to tie some things down and assess the damage.  I stayed at the door yelling at them to get inside.  I couldn't believe they were out there, I was sooo angry.  I ran to the other side of the house where the second half would come from.  I could hear something.  I opened the door and stuck my head out. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, surely the 45minutes they said we would have was over!  Closing the doors as fast as I could, I yelled out, "get inside, get inside, it's coming, I can hear it. It's coming." Dad's response was "nah it's ok it's not here yet!" I was furious.  I yelled again in an angry manner "Dad, I don't care what you do, but I have already lost one husband, I'm not losing this one! I love him too much." I grabbed hold of Simon and dragged him inside. It was coming like a freight train down the mountain opposite our house and it wasn't going to stop! Our reprieve was over! We quickly relocated the kids back to the wardrobe, as this time we needed to be on the other side of the house, it was coming from the opposite direction and it was worse. I thought, how could this be any worse...but it was.  The pounding of trees, twigs and other peoples household items being slammed up against our house was terrifying.  The sound of the wind whirring like I have never heard before. We got through the first half, but how the hell were we going to get through this.  We had massive glass sliding doors that were bending in the wind! How does glass bend you ask...well it did!

Cane train carnage at the end of road

The view before the cyclone

Before yasi...so green!!

Our poor old patrol copped a hammering but saved us...we were behind that wall!

Camper trailer tied down with rope and chains.

The water poured in from every window

Fixing up the window in Dad's patrol just so he could drive it....luckily his all stayed in place!  We now own that Patrol!! :-) Driveway palms...all blown down

popcorn making with generator & candles!

A couple of days later...playing monopoly with the local school teachers

Devastation at Mum and Dad's place :(

Looking for belongings in meters of sand with Grandma Jan!

Finally we found part of the table!!