Monday, June 18, 2007

Squizz*

Dune damage Ocean Beach Umina

Trotted down to Ocean Beach and took a few snaps of the dune damage. Not very dramatic is it?

The damage on the Peninsula is minor. The main suffering was had when the power was out for 3 days and no-one could get a hot cup of tea or a warm bath. Except in the few shops that didn't get a blackout.

There were no deaths on the Peninsula. The seven deaths were all further up the Coast where the damage was much worse. A falling tree, one unknown but probably a drowning and that whole family whose car plunged into the missing bit of the Old Pacific Highway, poor bastards.

Dune damage near Ettalong Beach on Ocean Beach Umina

Dune damage on Ocean Beach near the Ettalong Beach corner.

In the background there we're looking at the back of Wagstaffe and at Lobster Beach, which appears to have disappeared entirely.

Ocean Beach SLSC Trafalgar Avenue Umina

Ocean Beach SLSC (Surf Life Saving Club) Trafalgar Avenue Umina. The construction site didn't suffer much damage that I could see.

Lion Island, Barrenjoey Head & Pittwater from Ocean Beach Umina

Lion Island, Barrenjoey Head & Pittwater from Ocean Beach. Tree trunk and seaweed in foreground. There was a lot of seaweed and bits of trees washed up. It's a week now since the big storm (another possible tomorrow) and all the interesting and fun washed-up stuff is gone. The waves are still big and fierce though and half the beach is gone.

This photo is not lightened. This is how dark it is today and since I got back. There's another storm forecast and even if we don't get any more big winds, it'll piss down again.

Storm map from Friday

Umina Rampart has some nice photos of trees down on powerlines and so on. This one nicely illustrates the level of damage in most parts of the Peninsula.

The Dear Old Things and the Local Rag have caught me up on all the storm gossip:

Power blackouts from Saturday/Sunday to Monday/Tuesday, all over the Peninsula & The Bays.
No mobile phone coverage.
Minor flooding only & sand across the road on The Esplanade at Ettalong.
Plenty of roads closed, including roads to Gosford & Sydney.
Plenty of bits ripped off roofs & several shop signs & awnings down.
Tree on the line at Woy Woy & landslide at Wondabyne (Mullet Creek) brought the Sydney train to a halt & cutting the Sydney-Newcastle rail link.
Buses replaced trains between Hornsby (Sydney) and Gosford & a bus got flooded out at Gosford.
Train hit the landslide at Wondabyne but wasn't derailed.
It took 3 days to get the trains running again.
Jim Morrison of Woy Woy recorded the Peninsula's rain at 217MM for the storm period. The June average is 128MM.


* Ducktionary

4 comments:

Suzanne44 said...

No, not nearly as dramatic as I feared - and thank heaven (or whatever) for that.

stitchwort said...

Just read about your Mum - tough on you all. Thinking of you.

Anonymous said...

there mightnt have been storm damage to the surf club at ocean beach but the vandals have been having a field day with it from what i heard
i heard about the train at wondabyne hitting the rockslide only i heard that it did derail but only the front wheels and the rest of it got taken back to hornsby
didnt hear about the bus being flooded at gosford though
I hope we arent in for another one like last weekend

Spike said...

Suzanne - And not nearly as dramatic as the telly would have us believe. They made it sound like a bloody apocalypse.

Stitchwort - Thank you. I appreciate it.

Michael - Stupid buggers vandals.

Glad only the front wheels derailed. Woulda been a bastard to fix a derailed train along that stretch.