Tag Archives: Lodge

Hurtling towards normality

A very big day today.

  • We now have potable water straight from the tap.
  • We have electricity restored.
  • The insurance assessor paid us a visit.

These three things will make a huge difference to us. We can do laundry (currently an Everest-sized pile). We can have hot showers again. We can start the proper clean-up inside now that the assessor has been. We can have cold drinks and store fresh food again. We can have fans to keep us cool and fight the humidity. No more boiling water before we drink it either. No more scrounging a charge for the netbook from the Silkwood Newsagent or the Silkwood Hotel. We have a proper Internet connection via our ISP which means I can read, reply and send email. So many other things too.

Water, food, shelter, power, the basics we all take for granted.

Cyclone Yasi – Silkwood Clean-Up Volunteers

Today 250 wonderful volunteers arrived in Silkwood to help residents clean up the village. This was organised by David Hall, a resident of Silkwood and owner of the Overflow shops in the area. Whole families, single people, sailors, you name it and they were here lending a hand. Two of the people that worked on our place run a clearance business and they donated their services free of charge. How cool is that? We even had a couple of Canadian ladies that are here as part of a teacher-exchange programme.

Try as I might I can’t think of words that begin to express our thanks to these selfless folk. I’ll leave it with this: you are legends.

Some pix from the day. I’ll add names when I can find my notebook.

Edit: The total over both days was close to 500. As well as the people mentioned above there were two guys from Thursday Island who had never been to mainland Aus before and one guy who carried fallen logs in his wheelchair. Yes, that’s correct, a wheelchair.

Special thanks too to Craig and Craig who work in PNG Monday-to-Friday and gave up their weekend off to help out. There’s a couple of cold ones with your names on waiting at the Silkwood Hotel.

Edit 2: I now have my notebook again so here are the good people that helped clear the debris from our place:

  • Hayley and Craig Read
  • Lisa and Shelby
  • Lee-anne
  • Rob Graafland
  • Rob, Annie and Blake Lemmey
  • Rachel and Jeremy White of What A Load Of Rubbish
  • Ben Loftus
  • Andrew Evans
  • Glyn Wakeman

Good people.

Edit 3: It’s almost a year and I still haven’t sent those emails. I’ll remedy that today.

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

Silkwood Clean-Up

More house pix

Colour Coded Generator

Colour Coded Generator

Very kind of Ergon to take aesthetics into account.

Piles Of House

Piles Of House

The missing bits.

Small Garage

Small Garage

At least the mower stayed dry.

Crumbly Stumps

Crumbly Stumps

One of the concrete stumps that keep the house above ground.

Dangle

Dangle

The mains electricity cable to the house. Nearly pulled down by passing trucks so Ergon snipped it.

It's Good To Talk

It's Good To Talk

Telstra announced free calls from all phone boxes. Cyclone damage or eager users?

Nice

Nice

Doesn’t need any explanation.

Cyclone Tasha aftermath

We were so busy watching the water rise at the back of the property that we didn’t see these two trees fall at the front. The Lillipilli is probably savable but the Grevillea is going to be a saw and burn job. It’s a real pity as the Grevillea not only has beautiful flowers but is also a popular nesting tree and a great source of food for birds.

grevillea

Fallen Grevillea

lillipilli

Fallen Lillipilli