Saturday, April 05, 2008

The Day Where Melbourne Blew Me Off

It was 2nd April, wednesday. It is any other normal day in Melbourne. The sky was clear with cool breeze. I woke up early and prepared for breakfast. After breakfast, i was back to rushing my tutorial for the tutorial ahead. As i proceed out to school, there were strong winds blowing everywhere. It was crazy... Sand pelted my face as if needles were poking me. As i took cover with my hoodie, i looked on the ground and saw tiny glass shards moving on the floor. It dawned on me on a 'what if' scenario... 'What if a glass shard flying and hit me in the face?' In the end, i decided to take the tram to school instead of walking.

It was all well in school until a power failure came unexpectedly. The network was down and everything in school came to a complete halt. The school administration had to evacuate students out of the building, classes had to be cancelled as nobody can enter the rooms. It was bad... And my area was affected too. Power was out since 2pm and it only returned at 8.30pm.

The winds were really bad so i had to accompany a neighbour home. She wanted to take the tram but the wait for simply too long for her to endure, so we ended up walking. She was really small, skinny and light-weighted. During the walk, i had to push her a little to continue walking as the winds just impeded our advance.

Back at home, my neighbours and i had candlelight dinner. It was something i had never expected in my whole life. Now i realise the neccessity of power and backup sources if ever needed. I have never thought of electricity blackout backups. So after that night, i am prepared. Candles, lighters, torchlights and such.

The next day, the papers reported a few victims due to the strong winds which includes:

An old granny being crushed to death by a wall of bricks

A man died of electric shock while he was hiding in a telephone booth. Apparently the wind broke a powerline and it fell on top of the booth.

Another man was under a crane when the winds topple the crane over.

And many many more debris that fell from trees, tall buildings and construction sites. Thank god im only experiencing power shortage.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wow. take care, ya?

for an instance, i thought u are worried that the glass pieces will disfigure u. hahha