Thanks & no thanks

No thanks

In 2005 Simon Lindsay (AKA Doddery Old Fart of Rest Area 300m) saved the life of a truckie. But his and his fellow road-workers' rescues of other drivers in trouble on NZ's roads have gone almost entirely unreported.

The truckie had passed out from a reaction to a bee sting. Simon revived him after finding him slumped over the wheel on the roadside. He got the truckie breathing again, his fellow road-workers got onto emergency services and set up a road block to allow a rescue chopper to land on the road. A passing paramedic stopped to help and the local copper also. This was reported in the news as the paramedic and copper reviving the guy.

Simon was not enraged by the lack of mention for himself and his work-mates but it was another instance of their rescue efforts being attributed to others.

Simon and his fellow road-workers get plenty of stick and sod all acknowledgement.


Thanks

There's a small notice taped to the side of the Westpac bank on Blackwall Road Woy Woy. It thanks passer-by for helping the note's author's wife when she needed medical attention there recently.


Thanks



Railway or Council workers laying rows of old tyres to stabilise a dodgy bit of the bank in Woy Woy Inlet.

Without these guys the railway would end up in the bay and the Central Coast would get cut off from Sydney again.

Second storm fails to lash Woy Woy

Batten down ready for another one just like the other one, they said. Get yer candles out, they said, put on an extra blanket and tie down yer pot plants and wait.

So we did.

Nothing happened.



Dawn dawned with a dark menacing grey sky with bugger-all wind and then the sun came out and there's still bugger-all wind.

Squizz*

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 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 (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. 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

Hunter Collectors

This is pretty much the extent of the visible damage in Bustling Downtown Woy Woy.

The Dear Old Things, however, had hair-raising tales and Michael won't mind me dragging his comment onto this post:

the power was out in certain parts for anything up to 3 days my aunt who lives at booker bay didnt get power back until monday afternoon!!!

i was down at umina last saturday morning and the northern side of west st, all the shops were shut (from Bi Lo [near Ocean Beach Road corner] down) because they didnt have power and the other side everything was operating as normal because they had power but that was back to normal by sunday night

Shit. Must've been bloody cold with no power for that long. Hope yer aunty didn't freeze, Michael.

We're copping more storms this weekend and in the same areas hit last weekend. Gale force winds are predicted and the newsreader on Aunty just said to batten down the hatches.

Go to Hunter Collectors for photos of the beached ship at Newcastle/Nobbys Beach and other storm damage in the worst hit areas. Residents' photos of the worst damage aren't online yet due to power black-outs and shorted out computers.

Back

And I didn't get washed away neither.



On the right is Woy Woy (upper dot) and Sinny (AKA Sydney). On the left is Perth, capital city of Western Australia. The blue line is the airbus.



"Fremantle Hospital
Princess of Wales Wing" it says.

One of Freo Hospital's newer bits.

It's a fairly comfortable bit. Good thing too. My mother's in there dying of cancer.

She's been sick for a long time but she suddenly took a turn for the worse and it looked like she had days so all of us ships came back to the shore.

She's stable again now and as comfortable as you can be under the circs. But she's running out of time. Six months left maybe. Next I disappear suddenly that'll be why.


(Old photo)

The Knowle building still stands in the hospital grounds. It was built in 1852 from local limestone (sandstone) and stood on a bit of a rise. Would've had goods views out to sea then. The parts of the hospital on South Terrace still do.

Photo taken from a corridor somewhere. Your guess which corridor is as good as mine. Bloody labrynth Freo Hospital.



Alma Street from Freo Hospital. Quiet little street in old Freo. Or it would be quiet if ambulances didn't hurtle down it at all hours.


(Massify)

View from Freo Hospital out over South Terrace to Gage Roads. Gage Roads is the holding pen for ships waiting to come into Freo Harbour.


Storm damage



Bottom arrow is Sydney, middle arrow is Woy Woy. Top arrow is Maitland & the Hunter, where the floods and the main damage was done. The fallen bit of highway that took out the car is maybe 15 kays above Woy Woy.

The pictures on the news were bloody alarming. Ships beaching themselves (Nobbys at Newcastle), bits of the Pacific Highway dropping off and a carload of peeps plummetting to their doom, ferries stopped in Sydney, flash flooding up Maitland way, and all that sort of thing.

Rang one of the Dear Old Things. She said it was a bit blowy but everyone was all right and she could see my place was all right from her window so I wasn't too fussed.

Nice big map showing major incidents on Suzanne's walkies blog. Thanks, mate.

Cold showers and crosswords by candlelight for the Maroons (Queensland Rugby). They were in town and had to bunk down at Woy Woy Leagues overnight. (Sadly this link contains no pictures of footy players showering.)

Clean up could take yonks says the SES (State Emergency Service, those peeps in orange jumpsuits). Maitland and thereabouts, particularly Hinton, has taken a terrible thrashing. Flooded up to the Khyber Pass and wading in their own shit, poor bastards.

Had a look around outside this morning when I emptied my bulging letterbox. Checked the Dear Old Things had no broken windows and missing roof tiles. Didn't talk to them yet. It's fucking freezing today and they'll be tucked up in front of the telly with the cat and their fluffy slippers on.

There's fuck all damage in my street but I got home in the wee hours and haven't been out for a look at Woy Woy yet. Tomorrow.