And then the rains came

When one lives in the Tropics, the wet season must eventually be experienced.  For the past few months every Aussie has commented on the peculiar lack of wetness during this wet season.  It seems Mother Nature is now trying to make up for lost time.  The rain began on 6pm Wednesday and literally has not abated for the next 48 hours.  Someone recently asked me for my definition of “monsoon”.  With a nod to Justice Stewart, I replied “I don’t know if I can categorically define monsoon, but I’ll know it when I’m in it.”  Well, we’re in it.  The first 24 hours brought 7 inches of rain.  The next 24 hours, ending at 6pm Friday, brought another 5 inches.  They are still forecasting another 3 inches of rain on Saturday.  That’s more rain in 3 days than what Chicago receives in April, May, June and July combined.  According to this article, the heaviest period for Gladstone was 4 inches of rain in a 6 hour window.  The source of all this wetness can be traced to Oswald.  Old Hurricane (Cyclone to Aussies) Oswald hit Cairns in northern Queensland, and virtually the entire eastern seaboard is now feeling the effects.  Long story short, I have extra time on my hands, so I thought I’d temporarily assume web logging duties.  

I've never been able to keep the "Red Sky" adage straight in my head, but this is the last moment of weather we've had where a raincoat was not required.

I stepped out our front door at 3:40 Thursday morning directly into 2 inches of standing water.  I’m not sure there’s a good way to start a day when getting up that early, but having cold, drenched feet is definitely not it.  On the bus, I heard news that the Gladstone airport had closed.  When I arrived on my jobsite, I learned that the other two big projects on the island had closed for the day.  Our crew left in the morning, while I stayed around for a few meetings and spent the rest of my time checking the radar and wondering that if Gladstone’s current rain rate was color coded as orange, what exactly the color black represented.  I assumed the apocalypse.  Katie emailed me that our new moat had risen another inch and was threatening to leak in through our front door.  After a few frantic emails and phone calls, a man arrived to fix the drainage problem.  

Jackie helping to de-clog the drain.

The moat continued to the front yard.

Katie "hurricane proofing" our house.  Notice the towels by the door and the couches on soup can stilts.

Early Thursday afternoon it was announced that higher winds were expected the next couple days, so the site would not be open until Tuesday.  Normally this news would be met with the type of joy experienced by school-aged kids right before summer break.  However, shortly after this we discovered many of the surrounding roads were in jeopardy of being flooded.  It’s a major holiday weekend in Australia -Saturday is “Australia Day" (which is not the equivalent of our Independence Day - it’s more like our Columbus Day) and many people have had to cancel their plans, Katie and I included.   In early October we spent the afternoon in Noosa to break up the long drive from Brisbane.  It was raining then, too, but it still made a very favorable impression and we were excited to book a trip back there at the first opportunity.   Since Noosa is mainly a beach town, and hurricanes don’t usually offer the best beach weather, Katie and I decided to cancel our trip.