Very weathery weather

[vilakins]

I almost posted about the weather on Wednesday, but I didn't have time before I had to go out, then I decided not to bother. It was not a nice day. I was drenched to the skin just getting from the library to my car right outside, terrified by thunder so continuous it sounded like artillery, and when I got home, still dripping, and changed into dry clothes, I had to go out again to a play I had tickets for. I was tempted not to, but I had to pick up a friend. Let me tell you, we get subtropical rain here the intensity of the shower you wash under, and driving in it is unpleasant and scary, and raincoats and umbrellas do not help much when it's hitting the ground so hard it bounces back.

They had some tornadoes elsewhere that day in various places, but today six bad ones ripped through Taranaki (where I spent part of my childhood). I've just been watching the news and I think they're the worst ones we've ever had. No one was killed, but one woman only survived because she saw the "black cloud" coming and grabbed her kids and took cover in a doorway. She'd been on the computer in the office, and tiles from next door's roof were driven 6 inches into the floor and there were holes in the wall made, they suspect, by the PC being thrown about. If her kids had gone to bed early, they'd have been dead; there was glass all over the room. Another person was badly cut by glass just as she came out of the shower in nothing but a towel and is in hospital.

You have to admire the staunchness of these country towns though.

"Residents who have tornado debris on their property can put this debris out on the kerbside before midday tomorrow and it will be cleared," [Civil Defence group controller Graham Young] said. "We just ask that people don't abuse the opportunity."

Some of our friends here in Auckland lost part of their roof one night to a small tornado, but luckily that was all. Many of these people's houses are gone.

I've worked out that the best place to hide here would be in the walk-in wardrobe or the stairwell, but if it's at night I'd never know. I sleep with earplugs during bad weather and I'd never hear a twister coming.