The Storm That Wasn't

Perth Storm, We will Rebuild via M. Parcej

We of Perth are very lucky with our climate, unlike our Eastern neighbours we don't seem to have floods and unlike our northern neighbours we very rarely see a cylclone down this way. We did have some pretty crazy weather earlier this week, a cylone apparently. There were a few northern suburbs that had a tordedo and on Tuesday night all of Perth and the South West was on high alert and told that the storm of the century was on its way.

Weather in Perth is normally mild, the news of the storm of the century put all residents on high alert. People were posting photos of the weather radar on facebook, twitter and facebook were all trending Perth storm. The radio stations were abuzz with the storm of the century.

The storm passed without too much damage. I'm not saying that some people's lives and homes were not impacted on. I know that some suburbs were without power for more than two days, and some roofs were lost, some fences too, and there were lots of trees down and branches scattered, but on the whole Perth fared pretty well against the storm of the century.

There are some very funny pictures circulating on facebook regarding the storm, and 'Perth Storm, We Will Rebuild' was trending for a while on facebook and twitter. I think these photos are hilarious and it was clever of people to take them and post them. What I worry about is whether as a community, we Western Australians are prepared if we do get the storm, or disaster of the century. I'm thinking we are not.

There are some Western Australians who are partially ready for the acopalyse like the Belgian Patrick Geryl, but most of us are not and we really do not have the infrastructure to cope with a major weather disater. Unlike cities to the east of us we are very islolated, the most isolated capital city in the world even. It would take a long time for other Australian cities come to the aid of Western Australia.

I sincerely hope that what the South West of Australia saw last week was the storm of the century, but I'm buying a torch just in case it wasn't.