Yasi is a huge, dangerous cyclone

[journeyman Mick]

Got the genset running cooling down fridges and freezer and will let it run till this tankfull is done, then I won't start it again till tonight. We were very fortunate, even less winds up here than during Larry. Nothing bouncing off the roof and only leaves and a few small branches down in the yard. About to head out in our fire appliance with a paramedic mate to see if help is needed.

Mick

[wheelinround]

While Australia gets cooked and blown about USA is freezing

Hope all our FNQLDer's are safe and well.

[Cliff Rogers]

We are still here, eye got within 50k of us, no structural damage here, no trees down, lots of broken branches but nothing like Larry here.

Tully, Mission Beach & Tully Heads really copped it bad, we have relos there, they have their house but a lot of people don't.
They lost a shed & some cars.

[BobL]

We are still here, eye got within 50k of us, no structural damage here, no trees down, lots of broken branches but nothing like Larry here.

Good to hear you and JmM made it without too much damage.

[KevM]

We are still here, eye got within 50k of us, no structural damage here, no trees down, lots of broken branches but nothing like Larry here.


That's great news Cliff, I checked this morning and saw no posts from you and was wondering how you had fared.

[BobR]

Sounds good Cliff. Looks like you are not going to have to protect anything from the chainsaw weilding SES this time, or was that RFB.

[KevM]

Got the genset running cooling down fridges and freezer and will let it run till this tankfull is done, then I won't start it again till tonight. We were very fortunate, even less winds up here than during Larry. Nothing bouncing off the roof and only leaves and a few small branches down in the yard. About to head out in our fire appliance with a paramedic mate to see if help is needed.

Mick
Mick, great to hear you are also ok, I hope all of our FNQ forumites fare equally as well!

[Cliff Rogers]

That's great news Cliff, I checked this morning and saw no posts from you and was wondering how you had fared.
We still don't have power, I had to start the gen set & go for a walk around & answer several phone calls & texts, took a while.

Sounds good Cliff. Looks like you are not going to have to protect anything from the chainsaw weilding SES this time, or was that RFB.
FAQn firies, it wasn't SES or RFB, it was a city crew from down south, no, we don't have to call them in but I'll be watching out for them just in case. :D

[Cliff Rogers]

Tully, Mission Beach & Tully Heads have copped it pretty bad.

They can't get in to Mission Beach yet.

Problems with moving around because of power lines & high tide as well as trees on the road.

[Cliff Rogers]

Wolffie lives at Tully Heads but she hasn't logged in here since September last year.
http://www.woodworkforums.com/members/5095-wolffie/

[jimbur]

Good news Cliff.
Jim

[Bob38S]

Good to see that you have weathered Yasi.

[Christopha]

Seems like that storm in a teacup has passed, whatever will the Media Morons find to scare people about next? Perhaps a Panda will escape from the Adelaide zoo and create pandemonium for Kochie to wail about?

I am very pleased that noone has been hurt and that there is no major damage. I knew Cliff would be fine because that man is indestructible.

[Rocker]

Great news Cliff and Journeyman Mick that you have survived Yasi relatively unscathed.

Rocker

[powderpost]

Back online... no damage actually less rubbish around than after Larry. Still was a bit scarry, didn't need prunes with the cornflakes though.
Jim

[Ironwood]

Good to hear everyone faired well.

I spoke to my Mum at Cardwell at about 6am this morning, they were doing OK, they got a lot of water that forced its way into the house through any little crack or orifice, most 70 year old Qld'ers have got a few of those I'm sure. Only 2 rooms in the house stayed dry.
Apparently at some stage water started coming through the ceiling and leaking onto my Fathers bed where he was sleeping, so he just moved the bed to one side and went back to sleep.

It was still too windy at 6am for them to go outside, but they must be out and about now, as I cant raise them on the phone.

[AlexN]

Great to hear that everyone's OK :).

Cheers,
Alex.

[Cliff Rogers]

Mission beach, Tully, Tull Heads, Hull Heads, & Cardwell are all in a bit of a mess, wait til the pictures finally get out.

[AlexN]

Like this one here at Port Hinchinbrook, from @cycloneupdate via the ABC News24 Twitter feed #TCYasi and TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/3vzwrt).

Yasi's tail looks a bit worrying, too - possibly very wet.

Alex.

Note, while I tried to provide the image here directly, it looks as though the actual link is dynamic, so if it disappears, that's why. No doubt to prevent someone like me re-posting it. I've removed the image URI. The link at the top should be OK, though. And the boats do look just like cast-aside toys.

[les88]

Cliff, I have been worrying for Wolfie she lives right on the ocean front, hope she moved out of harms way.
les

[Phil Spencer]

Glad you are all OK

[specialist]

Nice to hear you're good, a pity about the other communities. The pics look pretty bad. I feel sorry for the banana farmers, it seems that they were only just getting on their feet after larry.

Robert

[RETIRED]

Cyclone Yasi Pictures (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/cyclone-yasi-pictures/)

Cyclone Yasi Update: Category Two | Pictures, Photos, Video, News (http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/two-reported-missing-in-cyclones-wake-20110201-1acgp.html)

[acmegridley]

Well done Queenslanders no loss of life:2tsup:

[AlexS]

Good to hear all are OK, hope no one suffered any major damage.

[Cliff Rogers]

We have very limited access to the mobile network & our landline phone only works when we run the gen set.
I have worked out that I can point the internet antenna at Atherton & get a little bit of signal.
Our internet connection uses the NextG network & sometimes, all we can get is 2G.

There is an unconfirmed report that somebody managed to poison themselves with gen set exhaust fumes.

[AlexN]

Great to see you back online :). ABC News24 is currently reporting the generator CO-poisoning death as confirmed.

Any news of Mt Isa? They were in for a pounding but nothing has been reported yet that I've heard.

Cheers,
Alex.

[rsser]

There is an unconfirmed report that somebody managed to poison themselves with gen set exhaust fumes.

No p*ssed idiots that went out in the storm and got decapitated by flying roofing iron? Sigh. Where's Darwin when you need him.

[Ling1958]

Where's Darwin when you need him.

Last seen lying in a cave trying to read another sharpening thread :D

[rsser]

Lol!

[AlexN]

Just seen an interview by Joe O'Brien of the ABC of someone called Shirley from Tully Heads - apparently had home completely obliterated by the storm surge. The lady was OK because she and her husband heeded the advice and got out early. No idea if the person being interviewed was wolffie or not, though.

[artme]

Hughe sigh of relief from here to all up in FNQ!! Very fortunate that the beast headed the way it did.

Maybe people are also finally getting the message about safety!!

[specialist]

I was talking to a friend from mt isa last night and he said that there were just strong winds and rain, mostly to the south of the town so that should mean that flooding shouldn't be a problem.

Robert

[AlexN]

Cool :). Thanks for the heads-up, Robert.

[BobL]

Hughe sigh of relief from here to all up in FNQ!! Very fortunate that the beast headed the way it did.

Maybe people are also finally getting the message about safety!!

What'll happen is things will swing the other way.

In a few years time . . . ."Cat 5 - can't be that bad, no one died" and the cycle will start all over again

[journeyman Mick]

Seems like that storm in a teacup has passed, whatever will the Media Morons find to scare people about next? ................

Christopha,
while the media do turn most things into a three ring circus, this was no storm in a teacup, make no mistake. It was a combination of preparation, good fortune and world class building codes that minimised the destruction. Had the cyclone passed to the north of us as originally thought, I was fully expecting to lose the roof of my house. My place is built to the old W42 code, meaning it's good for 150km/h winds. It would probably withstand more than that, but how much more is anyone's guess. I moved our dining table against an exterior wall and was planning on sheltering under it if things got bad. It's quite sobering paring down your life to a handful of things you can throw in a grab bag: passport, wallet, cash, camera, laptop, socks and jocks. Looked around the house as I was doing it and mentally said goodbye to the lot.

We've just had the power come back on after 45 hours and the mobile network is up again after 24 hours. Got broadband, but no landline.:?

Mick

Mick

[m2c1Iw]

Good to hear you got through OK, somebody commented if a path had to be picked for the cyclone it would have been plotted the way it went missing the main centres.
Try telling that to the people around Tully. :(

[Ironwood]

Just got off the phone to my Mum in Cardwell. Her house survived, but a lot of stuff in the yard was damaged, a big tree filled yard now virtually bare except for a few sticks sticking up.
She said this morning she was out by the fence talking to a neighbour, when this guy pulled up, and asked if she wanted a hand.
He had with him a wheelbarrow, shovel, rakes etc. he worked all day helping clean up, now on dark he is having a bucket bath in the backyard before driving home to Cairns to his wife.
Mum said he wouldnt accept anything for his help, just took a few avocadoes that were on the ground.
Nigel from Cairns, whoever you are, thank you so much.

[WoodJunky]

That's Really Good News to hear that everyone got through relatively unscathed

[Dengue]

Finally back on the Internet temporarily courtesy of an extension lead over the fence from a neighbour's generator.

Yasi hit late Wed night, but the power was off by 9pm that night, and is still not back on.

It was a very wild night on Wed night and Thurs morning, loud roaring noise of the continuous gale and violent, explosive wind gusts that that hit constantly for 6 hours. I was sure they were going to tear the roof off. Only about 4am did it start to ease off in the intensity. We got about 1/2 hr sleep all night. The winds never abated until about 6pm Thursday, so it had a very long tail on it, but without too much rain. Still not safe to go out in it all day Thursday.

Our street was littered with huge trees across the road and in the power lines, so we weren't going anywhere even if we wanted to. The neigbourhood came out and cut up the big ones so cars could carefully drive through, and the local Council came today with heavy equipment and pushed them all up on the footpath, clearing the roads.

The damage at our house is the loss of one of the whirlybird vents on the top of the roof line, leaving a 300 mm diameter hole which took in a fair bit of water. Plumber son came out yesterday and covered it up, in the wind and rain.

We had water damage to two bedrooms, both with SE facing walls, the direction the cyclone rains and winds came from. Our new timber T&G bamboo floor in the main bedroom is ruined, as is the carpet in the 2nd bedroom, totally saturated, but we are not sure how the water got in. Mind you, it was blowing horizontally, and windows and single brick walls are not designed for that. We alos lost one of the gates on our double gates - just blew it off the hinges.

We have to throw out all our food in the fridge and deep freeze, because we have no electricity. I went looking for some ice at 6.30am this morning, and there were about 200 people at the iceworks at 7am when they opened. Fortunately I was toward the head of the queue.

The funny part was the local mini mart. I went for a quick drive after I returned with the ice to see some of the damage, and to collect a newspaper at the local store. At the store there were all these people hanging about outside, and inside it was full too, but nothing was happening. They all looked so sombre, no one was talking - like the living dead. I asked the guy behind the counter, and he told me they were all waiting for the delivery of cigarettes - the store had run out the previous day :)

There are no traffic lights out our way, and crossing the big intersections is a dangerous experience. I had one near miss on the way to collect the ice.

So, we are safe and well, have lodged and insurance claim, and just wish the power would be restored so we can use the overhead fans to get some sleep - it is so very hot and humid here.

Would be interesting to learn the intensity of the winds here... I think we got off fairly lightly - not much structural damage, but lots of trees uprooted due to the very wet ground, and or course the brittle gum trees breaking off - they should be banned in the tropics.

Just found the BoM data - at 1.30am on Thurs morning, the average 1/2 hr wind speed was 106km/hr, with gusts of 135 km/hr measured. Could have been worse., much worse :) This is in the "destructive winds" category, as predicted by the BoM. Fortunately, the storm surge did not reach the predicted 6m levels, as it slowed down as it got near the coast, and arrived closer to low tide than high tide here in Townsville

Another thing is that being to the south of the eye, Townsville, Ingham and Cardwell copped it a lot worse than Cairns from the winds coming in directly from the SE for the next 17 hours. I bet the citizens of Cairns breathed a huge sigh of relief, as at one stage they were right in the path of the Cat 5 cyclone.

Tried to change our flights booked to Sydney next Thurs with JetStar, explaining the damage we experienced and need to fix it over the next week or so. They wanted $250 to change one flight - they could easily re-book for $700, the going rate at the moment up here as they are in high demand. Mongrels!! So will probably check in online and then give the flight a miss. Would be mischievous to put luggage on board and then not board :)

you can see the photo galleries of damage at http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/

[specialist]

JillB, That looks really bad, I'm glad youre good. The trees really took a pounding, the ground being so wet probably didn't help.

Hope the insurance comes through for your house.

Robert

[Dengue]

Survived another night without power - hot , humid and sticky, no overhead fans or aircon, just like the good old days, with pillows and sheets saturated from sweat :(.

Now on day 4 without electricity, but no sign of Ergon Energy. We live about 500m from the big zone substation, and we know people fed from it who have power, so it is working OK.

The damage has been so widespread along the 600 km coastline affected by Yasi that thier staff would be very thinly spread.

Saw a ute from Energex ( Brisbane electricity uutility) in Townsville yesterday - suspect they have been flown in by the Army & RAAF transporters

we are off to queue up and get some more ice now :wink:

[Cliff Rogers]

Now we have the internet & mobile phones but no home phone.

The problems are all due to lack of power in some areas & the batteries are failing in the exchanges & mobile towers until somebody gets there with a gen set to recharge them.

Anyway, we are still here, still without power & only have patchy comms but we will survive.

Malanda & Millaa Millaa now have power but it is only in town, everybody around the outside of towns is still having to rely on gen sets.

Today we are going to try to find somewhere to do some washing as our machine won’t run on the small gen set we have.

We need to run a pressure pump as well for the water & every time it cuts in, the computer in the machine resets.

We also still have several hours work picking up branches around the property left to do.

We have cleaned up around the house & garden, it is just the stuff further out the needs to be cleaned up so were can get a mower/slasher through to control the paddock grass.

We spent a day in Tully yesterday (Saturday). We took a load of donated ply & a big tarp, also donated, & a load of tools & work gear & went down to help.

Spent the day patching windows, fixing window hinges & locks, pulling up & dragging wet smelly carpet, picking up building debri & cutting up tress.

I have never seen so many helicopters in one place on one day.

The Black Hawks were bringing troops to help & at least one of the smaller helicopters was accessing power line damage but most of them were just gouls & pollies filming & gawking at the mess.

Tully is a mess.

As we drove into town in the morning there was a bus load of SES volunteers arriving & at about 3pm a whole convoy of Army troops arrived from Townsville.

They have started to clean up the town.

[BobL]

Thanks for the detailed word pics and photos. Somehow coming from people one sort of knows it makes it more real.

The aftermath sounds pretty bad, especially not getting any sleep because of the heat and humidity, let alone having to do a massive clean up, so my heart goes out to you guys.

Seeing all those trees makes my CS trigger finger real itchy but realise that part is relatively trivial when you have no power or sewage and in some case no roads..

I don't like to be critical of anyone affected at this stage in proceedings but have to wonder about some people. Was watching some TV about the damage and there was a near new house built within 10's of m of a beach with full wall height glass windows and doors on a second floor blown in and heaps of water damage. Great views but I'm surprised that sort of construction is permitted? In my part of OZ that's about the same as building a weatherboard house in dense bush.

[Ironwood]

Spoke with a mate of mine who lives at 5 Mile Creek, he waited out Yasi at his neighours house, the next day took 7 hours to cut his way back to his own place.
He counted 83 trees down just in his house yard. Trees smashed one of his sheds and one of his old Ford Falcons. The house was still OK but wet through.

[journeyman Mick]

We have power, internet (most of the time) and mobile service (patchy and breaks up easily). Were only without power for 45 hours so that was pretty good. Have a small inverter genset that kept the fridges and freezer ticking over and lights at night. I have a 12v booster pump wired off a battery permanently plumbed in parallel to the main pump so I always have water. Very little damage around here, even to the trees. We lost the back fence to our rental property in Redlynch and I'm awaiting to see if that and the tree clear up is covered by insurance.

I worry that a lot of people around Cairns will now think that a Cat 5 is nothing to worry about. There were a lot of people worried about the possible storm surge though, who raced up the hill to Kuranda at the last minute, most without any food. They were all very irate, rude and aggressive to local businesses when told there was no eftpos, ATMs, fuel (ran out Tuesday arvo), ice, bread or newspapers and that the road back down the hill would not open for the rest of the day in Thursday.

Had one woman who lobbed up on a mate's doorstep who I got housed in an (un)official evac centre. It was officially designated as one but there was no coordinater so was not supposed to open. It was anyway thanks to miscommunications. Anyway, this woman had raced up the hill atg the laast minute taking her two kids, dog, 2 cats, 2 pet rats and her two Rwandan refugee neighbours. She had no food and barely enough fuel to get to the local servo which had no fuel anyway until lunchtime Friday. If we do get a Cat 5 hit a major population centre then natural selection will get a big kick along.

Mick

[AlexN]

From Ergon Energy's twittter feed a few minutes ago:

"More than 2000 people across Qld are actively working on Ergon Energy’s response to #TCYasi"

Apparently there's quite a few of them who were working on the Brisbane flood repairs as well, so they will be well-practised :).

Another tweet (Townsville City Council) is warning that the Townsville water supply is "still considered fragile".

Great to hear that Mick, Cliff and Jill are relatively OK - we're thinking of you down here in the relative safety of Sydney.

All the very best,
Alex.

[Spanner69]

all well for me now in townsville..... I finally have power but am still cleaning up the yard.

I sent some photos to Amos who kindlky posted them here:

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f69/calling-spanner69-130970/

Cheers.

Spanner69

[BobR]

Jill, did that caravan in photo 2 survive the event, or arrive after. Very lucky if it went through the ordeal. Pleased to hear that you are making out - for the want of a better phrase..

[TTIT]

................Tried to change our flights booked to Sydney next Thurs with JetStar, explaining the damage we experienced and need to fix it over the next week or so. They wanted $250 to change one flight - they could easily re-book for $700, the going rate at the moment up here as they are in high demand. Mongrels!! So will probably check in online and then give the flight a miss. Would be mischievous to put luggage on board and then not board .... :~:~:~ What makes it worse was that I heard Bligh spruking that anyone seen to be gouging on the misfortunes of Queenslanders would be dealt with accordingly :doh: Apparently that means ignoring the airlines response to peoples plights. Heard on the ABC local radio that in the lead-up to Yasi, the cheapest Qantas flights out of Cairns were over $1000 and Virgin over $700 - cripes Anna!, if that ain't gouging, what the hell is??? :~

[kiwigeo]

:~:~:~ What makes it worse was that I heard Bligh spruking that anyone seen to be gouging on the misfortunes of Queenslanders would be dealt with accordingly :doh: Apparently that means ignoring the airlines response to peoples plights. Heard on the ABC local radio that in the lead-up to Yasi, the cheapest Qantas flights out of Cairns were over $1000 and Virgin over $700 - cripes Anna!, if that ain't gouging, what the hell is??? :~

I heard Virgin had actually capped their fares while Qantas were charging full last minute fares.

If you expect anything less from Qantas you've got your head in loo loo land.

[Cliff Rogers]

The gouging does happen....

There are 3 servos, one was closed, one was letting people book up their fuel & the other was 'cash only' & 7 cents a litre dearer. :rolleyes:

[Cliff Rogers]

I heard Virgin had actually capped their fares while Qantas were charging full last minute fares.

If you expect anything less from Qantas you've got your head in loo loo land.

All depends... we were booked to fly to Tassie on Friday, the Cairns - Melbourne return leg was booked with Qantas & the Melbourne - Hobart return leg was booked with Virgin.
We had to change our flights.
Qantas charged $13 to make the change & said that they would refund it.
Virgin charged $177 to change the flights & I had to fill out a form to request a refund & I won't know for 10 days if I was successful.
The problem is because we were not joining one of their flights from within a cyclone affected area.

[Dengue]

Yes!!! Last night at at 6.07pm, 3 hours short of 5 days without power, it was finally restored. I was really looking forward to a hot soaking shower and an airconditioned bedroom last night.

The pool is looking terrible, a dark murky green, courtesy of the neighbourhood leaves shredded into tiny bits - there could be crocs lurking in the bottom for all we can see. The pool filter will be running full time the next few days. Have vacuumed it all out this morning, got 1/2 garbage bag full of small cut up leaves

Will be interesting to watch TV, after a 5 day absence, and see if we have missed anything.
Bought a pizza for tea to celebrate, and tomorrow going on a grocery shopping spree to fill the fridge and freezer - look out!

Floor people came today to inspect the damage to carpet and new timber flooring, and will give quotes for replacement. Have ordered 3 Windworker roof vents to replace the useless whirlybirds

[Cliff Rogers]

We got ours back at 4:15pm yesterday, the was just over 5 days, ours went off early at about 2:30pm last Wednesday.

[RETIRED]

Not a bad effort on the part of the electric company considering the damage.

[Dengue]

The thing that annoys me about the electricity utility is that we are only 500m from the zone substation, and people nearby had power on the Saturday :(

[AlexN]

<snip...>

Will be interesting to watch TV, after a 5 day absence, and see if we have missed anything.

<snip>



Hi Jill,

Actually, it's been mostly about you people (with a bit of Victoria, WA and Egypt thrown in to round it out ;).

Great to read that you guys and gals all appear to be getting going again :).

Cheers,
Alex.

[derekh]

The thing that annoys me about the electricity utility is that we are only 500m from the zone substation, and people nearby had power on the Saturday :(

Jill,

If you're on Facebook, search for Ergon Energy and join their page. They have lots of information on the progress of the restoration effort and can answer your questions. I'm not associated with the Network Operations part of Ergon (I'm in IT) but as I understand it, their ability to reconnect you is not on physical distance from the substation but what sub-network you are on. As with the Brisbane floods, one side of the street had power the other side not. Be assured, they are doing their best to have everyone reconnected asap.

Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Ergon-Energy/174840539202952?v=wall)

cheers
Derek

[wally peat]

Sorry if this comes across as a bit of a rant, but only another woodie would understand what I am feeling right now.........ok, that was a bit of a blow we had. I had the biggest poltofren (sp?) tree come down in the back yard and lost a lemon scented gum out the front. No wind damage to the house, but the tidal surge sent 8 inches of salt water through the house and a foot through the workshop.

No dramas, we were warned to expect a 3 metre surge and had prepared accordingly. All my machines had been stripped of electric motors, all power tools and precious hand tools were upstairs, as was the furniture, so the damage was limited to wall sheeting, a couple of floating floors and mud right through the shed.

I can live with all of that, even the $30k quote I got yesterday to resheet the walls downstairs and the fine print in my insurance policy which says I am covered for any kind of flood except the ones with water in them.....but today I got some really bad news!

For the past five years I have worked at the university here in Townsville, and every day I have walked past a big eucalypt near the student mall and silently drooled over the biggest burl I have ever seen in my life. We are talking about a burl at least six feet up the trunk, about four feet across, and a metre thick. So yesterday I'm back at work and as I walk the well worn route there's something missing from the skyline.

Sure enough, three blokes are standing over the fallen gum and chainsawing it into chunks for the truck. (there's only about a thousand trees down across the campus, so it's just another tree to them) I'm onto the head gardener immediately and we do the deal. He tells the blokes to just cut the trunk off above and below the burl and leave it there. Then he says I should come and get it soon 'cos the clearup crew is pretty efficient.

My son has my van for the day and I don't think it will sit on the tank of the motorbike, so I'm back on campus at 6.15 this morning with chainsaw and lifting gear, drive into the spot where the tree came down and everything is still there except the burl. Ground as clean as a baby's bum. We've had a couple of inches of rain overnight and there's not a tyre track or footprint to be seen, so the deed's been done yesterday.

Back over to the grounds crew for a quick interrogation, and they confirm they left it all there when the finished cutting at 3.30pm yesterday.

SOMEBODY STOLE MY F*@#$ING BURL!!!!! :fit:

It wasn't mine, I didn't grow it, the tree had been there for a hundred years before the uni was even built, but I feel as though I've had a death in the family. Come to think of it, there's a couple of family members I'd willingly swap for a burl that size. Not just for me, this thing was big enough to spread around quite a few woodies here. I'm just glad I didn't have time to ring them up and share the good news before it wasn't any more.

I'm screaming in cyberspace here, and hopefully nobody's standing close enough to get hearing damage. I don't know why it's such a big deal, but missing that chunk of wood hurts far more than any other damage the cyclone did.

Tell me doctor, is there a cure for my condition?

[RETIRED]

's'nough to make ya spit.

[Ironwood]

Well thats just downright WRONG :~.

May all their chickens turn out to be roosters :((.

Seriously though, I can feel your pain, I wonder if they were tipped off by the guys with the chainsaws.

[wally peat]

Well thats just downright WRONG :~.

May all their chickens turn out to be roosters :((.

Seriously though, I can feel your pain, I wonder if they were tipped off by the guys with the chainsaws.

Nah, if I' ve been drooling over that bump for five years, how many other woodies are there in an institution of over 1000 employees who were ready with their utes for the moment it came down. I just hope I don't meet someone who skites about the burl they scored.....a man can only have so much self-control:cool:

[TTIT]

Keep your eyes peeled Wally - Karma may see you right yet :shrug: Once upon a time, a tree-lopper out here offered a big log of Burdekin Plum to a club member here - all he had to do was turn up with his truck and load it on. Got there and the cupboard was bare - one of the loppers employees had decided he wanted the log and dumped it on the roadside on the way to dump so he could pick it up later (apparently). Unfortunately for him, another club member spotted it and the lads picked it up straight away. Karma - The log got to where it was intended and I'll bet that lopper is still scratching his thieving head :U

[rsser]

That's a sad tale Peter.

I hope Vern's Karma theory is right.

[wally peat]

Ern, I've thought about it for 24 hours and decided it's a much less sad tale than the one about having to replace all the electronics in the Stubby, or even the whole shed if the big storm surge had eventuated, so I'll always be sad, but there's not much point in being unhappy. As a region, North Qld got off extremely lighly (sorry if you live in Cardwell or Tully), so I'm trying to see this minor loss in the context of what I still have - a home, a community to live in and a job to go to.

On a brighter note, as part of the cleanup, I opened all the switchgear on the Stubby to check for moisture and all that was in there was dust and the same air that it had when it left your place. That machine is a cross between a sherman tank and a submarine! :2tsup:

[munruben]

You gotta be quick.:D It's sorta like going to a sale and seeing something on special at a real bargain price and saying "I'll think about that for a while and might come back and get it later" You can bet your bottom dollar, it will be gone by the time you get back. :((

[Dengue]

Lifting furniture out of the way in my water logged bedroom, I did my back big time. Went to the physio, and he commented that he is treating a lot of injuries right now from people hurting themselves cleaning up.

Out of action for a week, and a painful weekend coming up, according to the physio :(

[rsser]

Rotten luck Jill. Hit the Celebrex for a few days perhaps.

Peter, glad to hear the Stubby is fine. Yes, sure is a monster. Sealed base with bottom plate 3/8" thick. You could anchor your shed to it.

[Spanner69]

For the past five years I have worked at the university here in Townsville, and every day I have walked past a big eucalypt near the student mall and silently drooled over the biggest burl I have ever seen in my life. We are talking about a burl at least six feet up the trunk, about four feet across, and a metre thick. So yesterday I'm back at work and as I walk the well worn route there's something missing from the skyline.


I also have drooled about that particular burl. When Is aw it had come down and was already gone I was hopeing that someone worthy had got it because I would have cried tears in bucket loads if it had been mulched.

[rsser]

Yeah, the routine chipping of downed trees by local councils drives me nuts.

With inside contacts some woody's clubs salvage some of the timber but it's a tragedy to see the rest wasted.

[Bob38S]

Yeah, the routine chipping of downed trees by local councils drives me nuts.

With inside contacts some woody's clubs salvage some of the timber but it's a tragedy to see the rest wasted.

Totally agree with the above.

In the past when I have "chipped" council on the same I was told it had to do with workplace health and safety, clearing the "debris" out of people's yards, roads etc as soon as possible and that they didn't want amateurs getting in the way as possibly someone could get sued. just the same old same old - unfortunately I have no answers.

By the way - this of course would have nothing to do with it - our council takes all "green waste", mulches it and then sells it back to the ratepayers :C