Its 6am Monday morning here, and after being confident yesterday that today we would be all back to work and school as normal, after 12 hours of torrential rain, flash and river flooding means this we will have at least O at home, and maybe E too. Sigh. I just got the text from O's Kindy that they are closed today because access is cut off due to flood waters, and at this stage I'm not even sure if we'll be able to get out of our property as the small creek the runs under our driveway is likely to be a torrent right now.
Last night I was driving back from checking on my parents place when I almost couldn't get our car up our driveway because of flooding. The rain was very heavy, and the flood waters on the driveway were rushing through like a river! Al had to wade in to check the depth before I could be confident I could drive the car through.
So we may all be home AGAIN today. Which means E will have missed out on more than a week of school (this would be 6th school day at home), I would yet again not be able to do a full day of work, and Al can't open his shop (which is yet more lost income). Deep breath.
Yet I am grateful:
We have power! So many people (still over 230,000 households) are without power for perhaps the 3rd or 4th day in our region, which I can't even imagine
We have a safe, warm house when so many are in insecure accommodation due to the housing crisis, and/or have damage from the cyclone
We still have food! Our cyclone preparation means that we still have bread in the freezer, (long-life) milk in the cupboard, fruit and snacks in the fridge and cupboard. So if we are cut off for a day or two, we will be OK.
I have a secure job with good personal leave benefits, so I'm not facing loss of income right now, even if Al's shop is impacted.
I can also do SOME work from home, so these days are not totally lost work wise
Wonderful blogger and podcaster SHU is facing a life-changing medical diagnosis, which also put things into additional perspective - we all have our health. I'm so glad she is doing well, and her resilience is inspiring, and also a good reminder to appreciate everything we have, as we never know when it might change.
OK - my pep talk (to myself haha) is over! Wish me luck for apparently Day 6 of this weather event!
Oh boy- I'm reading this two days later- i hope everything is okay now. We've had our power knocked out several times by hurricanes and it's not fun- so you're lucky on that count. Luckily we don't live in a flood zone so we don't have that issue. That water around your driveway looked DEEP. Fingers crossed everything is back to normal (and the kids are back to school!)
Ugh that is brutal!!! I am glad you are safe and still have power. But that is a long stretch of having kids at home!!!!