Hello Wind, Goodbye Tree

Bit of excitement here at the weekend. The wind kicked up Sunday afternoon and suddenly I was feeling all homesick, listening to the sound of branches thrashing against the house and bits of backyard rubbish blowing down the street.

Then things really got interesting ... a crash, a tearing noise and all the lights in the house start flicking on and off. The tv goes 'splut, splut' and disappears. The computer kinda blinked on and off, then just sat there with all the little lights blinking, ominously, as they do.

Obviously I knew the power had gone. I was cool about it til I looked out the window, saw the neighbours gathering to gawk at the tree on the corner, just one house away from us, a big branch down over the power lines. The power pole directly outside our house swaying, the street sign flapping in the wind like a flag.

There were lines dangling everywhere. I had a couple of thoughts - first, this is not my house and we have insured our stuff for a decent sum. Second, houses never catch fire when power poles fall over. Three, can I be electrocuted if a power pole falls on my house? Four, I think I'll get the hell outta here.

I rang my husband - careful not to use the landline because I heard once you shouldn't do that in electrical situations. Asked him what I should do. This alarmed him greatly. He rang the emergency people and I said "I think I'll go out somewhere".

I pull on some decent outside-the-house clothes and swiftly go for the car. I'm driving down the street past all the trees, all the power poles thinking .. hmmm ...maybe it's better to stay near the ones that have already fallen over ...

I make it to the local pub and I calm my nerves. Power poles never fall on pubs. I hear later a man riding a motorbike was killed by a falling tree.

There's no doubt, it was a big wind, even by Wellington standards. But the damage a good wind storm does here is considerable. Stuff just isn't nailed down here like it is at home. Not even the trees seem to put the effort into staying in the ground. Maybe it's something to do with the dryness of the soil. The plants just don't have a decent grip on the land.

Our friends up the street have rescued their tent-like pagola thing from their neighbour's backyard twice. A one and a half metre square tent, manages to escape from a two metre square courtyard, over a metre and a half high fence. The funneled force of the wind just lifts it up and plops it over the fence, with its little pagoda legs waving in the air. The last time, it was even tied down. At least, they thought it was.

Clothes blow off clotheslines cos people don't know how to peg stuff up properly, or insist on hanging stuff out in a windstorm!?

The State Emergency Services people and the power company were great. We had power back again in five hours. In NSW 120,000 houses had power cut that day, three days later 7000 were still waiting to be reconnected.

As I write this I can hear the chainsaws cutting into the tree on our corner. This mighty tree has to go because one branch fell off. It's very sad. They are very protective of trees here in Sydney, but it's just too dangerous to leave it.

Now I can hear the shredder turning it into woodchips. It is a sound more painful than the noise it made when the branch fell on Sunday.