Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Another tornado whizzes past

Fremantle is apparently the windiest port city in the world. We are on what's called a lee coast - very close to the Southern Ocean. At this time of the year we can usually depend on clean fresh air rushing at us from the great oceanic expanse lying in the general direction of Antarctica. Yesterday it came a bit faster than usual. A storm front arrived from the southwest at over a hundred kilometres an hour and managed to cause quite a bit of damage in our neighbourhood.

A small tornado zipped across the roof of North Fremantle's Swan Hotel, which I photographed a couple of weeks ago and discussed on 2 July 2008. It then continued through our suburb of Palmyra, passing by us a couple of streets to the south before continuing on its merry way into Melville and Myaree. There've been no reports of injuries.

The hotel had its tile roof smashed. I've put a photo on my Paroramio website. The Fremantle Traffic Bridge and its arterial roadway was closed to allow a cleanup. By the time I took my photo yesterday afternoon it would have been safe to reopen, but I later heard on a radio broadcast that they are going to keep it blocked off for the rest of the weekend, which is crazy.

In other places, most damage was done by falling trees. Some large eucalypt street specimens in Elvira Street, Palmyra fell onto the front of houses giving people inside a fright.

Even so, the damage appeared relatively minor in comparison to what some storms are capable of. Thankfully, we don't get the type of monster tornadoes they experience in the USA. There's some other photos I took yesterday in an album on my Picasa website. Google have been experiencing some software glitches with Picasa lately, so my fingers are crossed everything works this morning:

Tornado damage near Fremantle - 18 July 2008

There's been a battle between the residents of Elvira Street and the Melville City Council for maybe a couple of decades to preserve the street trees. My guess is that yesterday's event will now provide the civic authority with the excuse for a chain saw massacre.

A lot of rain has fallen over the past week and the Swan River has flooded in parts. It's nothing new. The river has flooded plenty of times in the past century. It's just a new experience for each generation.

Looking out my window this morning the sun is about to rise. The sky is clear and there is barely a breath of wind.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Advertisement