Things to do during a cyclone..

Hey everyone,

So as you already know, I experienced one of the worst natural disasters to hit Australia in over a century (and thats saying a lot), but we all came out safe and sound. With minor damage to infrastructure in my area, the main priority has been re-landscaping.

I feel very blessed to be apart of YWAM, for they have an excellent emergency plan and they executed it perfectly. We had plenty of water and food, plus they made sure everyone was in the most safest place possible for when we "locked down."

I'll just give you a quick summary of what happened:
We had warning of the cyclone possibility for over a week in advance, but it wasn't until Wednesday morning (Feb 2) that the reality that it was a certainty set in.
Everyone had jobs/ houses divided up so we could make sure all areas were completely secure.
During that time my flatmates and I cleared off our entire deck. The plants moved inside, along with 2 BBQs and all our patio furniture.
During Wednesday morning I moved locations 3 times as the conditions worsened and my flat became included in the "red zone" which meant subject to being flooded.
In the end, my flatmates and I all moved into our base director's house (Ken and Robyns), which was a BIG blessing as their house is only a few years old and was actually built cyclone proof (unlike mine that has cracks all over and could easily fall apart)

After lunch when everything was secure, we all headed off to our perspective lodgings and waited for the storm to hit. It wasn't until late afternoon that the wind really picked up, and the power lasted until 10pm. The eye of the cyclone crossed the coast about 2hours north of us at midnight. Although the storm was a category 5, the strength of the wind/ storm that hit us in Townsville was a category 3. During the afternoon while we waited, I decided to be productive and smash out 5 hours of homework (since there wasn't much else to do anyways lol). Once the power went off, I went to bed and actually slept right through the storm until 9 the next morning!! (Not bad - 11hr sleep and I actually only woke up the next day because I got shot with a nerf gun).
Thursday afternoon, we got the OK to leave our houses and so we went to survey the damage. To my pleasant surprise, my house survived and was in great condition minus 2 big trees that just missed the house. (The pics are on facebook if you haven't seen them already). Also, no structural damage happened to any of the other YWAM properties (only a bit of water leakage)
The power stayed off until late Friday morning, so during the time without power, here is some of the stuff that I did:

Made up a Bible Study lesson

Did LOTS of homework

Made cards :)

Hung out with Karly

Relaxed

Listened to Fiona playing live music

So that is the end of my cyclone adventure. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your prayers. We really appreciated them and honestly, you can see the impact they had as so many things should have been destroyed and somehow they were just missed by trees, etc. Absolute miracles everywhere.

All my love,
Liz