The last 10 days or so have seen some wild weather in and around Armidale, rounding off what has been a fairly wet year so far. This time last year, we were in a serious drought and had major water use restrictions. This time we have streams running strongly, dams full, and - as I reported a week or so ago - parts of out town were hit by a tornado that seriously damaged some buildings at the University of New England and in town.
This post reflects on some of these events.
While out for an evening walk a week or so ago I headed for the Armidale Apex Lookout. Facing east I saw this large jet-black thunderstorm depositing yet more rain on our landscape. A few days later I went for an afternoon drive and looked at Malpas Dam, which stores Armidale's domestic water supply. As you can see, the dam is now full instead of the c. 30% capacity last year. Indeed, because of recent rain, water was being released for downstream flow.
And here's another view over the landscape c. 30 km north of Armidale. Normally, at the weekend, the dam would be full of yachts and other boating craft, but some reason I can only guess at the surface was devoid of any craft on this occasion.
Yesterday, a little over a week after our tornado, I went out to see if my office on campus at UNE was undamaged - much of the university now being opened up for business. Well, my office and building housing it looked fine. But imagine my consternation when I observed that several old adjacent mostly old timber buildings had either been destroyed or badly damaged. I sometimes walk past them, but was glad I wasn't around on the day the tornado hit us!
I wonder how UNE is going to recover from the damage shown here.
AS
1 comment:
The damage to the buildings at the university is quite incredible. I'm glad your office wasn't affected, and more importantly that you and Mum were not impacted in any way other than a power outage.
Post a Comment