Cyclone Alfred

I had some rain hit the house sideways and technically some did get in the house when I opened the panel lift garage door, even dripped on me from the joints in the door when it was overhead. Luckily I don't have a terrible cyclone story to tell unlike some other poor souls, even just a few kilometres from me, as yesterday evening I had to go to the shops and my p o box, and those suburbs had a road closed and seemed largely without power and traffic lights.

Update: Seems to have got worse as I've seen one of the areas on the news.

Still no rain here despite the forecast for a lot of rain yesterday!

And the wind has dropped quite a bit, not that it was ever strong enough to risk significant damage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Still no rain here despite the forecast for a lot of rain yesterday!

And the wind has dropped quite a bit, not that it was ever strong enough to risk significant damage.

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[bigsad] Chin up, JD.

Maybe some from the area can provide some either help or at least reassurance.

I have a close friend in Brisbane (Brookfield) who, like me, is in their mid eighties, as is his wife. I talked to him on the phone yesterday morning, and he was not expecting to get flooded, but was likely to be cut off. But last night and both this morning and tonight, both his landline and mobile go straight to answering service. Is this what I would expect if the services are out due to a power outage?

I am guessing that both landline and mobile are out, but I am beginning to get concerned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Maybe some from the area can provide some either help or at least reassurance.

I have a close friend in Brisbane (Brookfield) who, like me, is in their mid eighties, as is his wife. I talked to him on the phone yesterday morning, and he was not expecting to get flooded, but was likely to be cut off. But last night and both this morning and tonight, both his landline and mobile go straight to answering service. Is this what I would expect if the services are out due to a power outage?

I am guessing that both landline and mobile are out, but I am beginning to get concerned.

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Don't quote me, but I saw somewhere that a couple of Comms towers are damaged. Also there is a swag of power outages, so mobile charging may be an issue. If landline wires are overhead, they may not be, now. Our latest estimate for return of power is around 2100, on the 12th.

Try their address here, John.
Energex Emergency Outages

I was asked at the local coffee shop on Saturday if I had any family up there.

I said no.

Then my wife reminded me that I had three sisters living on the Sunshine Coast.

I'd completely forgotten. Duh!

Umm, I'm not sure where though. One is at Birtinya, I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

I am guessing that both landline and mobile are out, but I am beginning to get concerned.

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Now we are reliant on the all singing and dancing nbn for land line comms, we're ****ed.

Even the best "land lines" have little back up batteries "per premises", and in the case the home owner has backup power the "exchange" is poorly backed up. Same for mobile towers. We're talking 10's of hours at best. If they happen to have backup diesels, they still need refueling and if the place is flooded you can't get fuel to them.

So in areas hard hit where flooding is in place, the power could be out for days. No power, no comms. Yay the modern age.

If it were my mum and I had radio silence, I'd be more thinking about the total lack of redundancy in our comms systems rather than her being in a predicament.

I suppose on the flip side, in the old days the pits all flooded, so we're probably not worse off. Just feels that way.

If you stiĺl have concerns tomorrow afternoon, I'll knock on their door if you like John. Hopefully the ferry will be back running.

Thanks Ian. I'll contact you tonight if I still can't contact them. From the news this morning it sounds as if there will be no power in a lot of places until perhaps Sunday.

I am off to town today (weekly shopping trip). Still not a drop of rain here, which at least means a probably uneventful day for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BradC

Now we are reliant on the all singing and dancing nbn for land line comms, we're ****ed.

Even the best "land lines" have little back up batteries "per premises", and in the case the home owner has backup power the "exchange" is poorly backed up. Same for mobile towers. We're talking 10's of hours at best. If they happen to have backup diesels, they still need refueling and if the place is flooded you can't get fuel to them.

So in areas hard hit where flooding is in place, the power could be out for days. No power, no comms. Yay the modern age.

If it were my mum and I had radio silence, I'd be more thinking about the total lack of redundancy in our comms systems rather than her being in a predicament.

I suppose on the flip side, in the old days the pits all flooded, so we're probably not worse off. Just feels that way.

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Their other idea of a backup if the nbn line fails is a sim card in the router, but as you say in a power outage that goes to the cell tower which only has batteries