It's the apocalypse!

[reggie11]

It's wild in Sydney tonight with massive storms, flooding, and gale force winds. It's the first time in a long time I've actually been scared of a storm. That might have something to do with the huge branch that came whipping down the street, to the accompaniment of car alarms and sirens, and have it smash into the bars on my living room window. Thank Chuck for the bars or it would have come crashing through the glass. Before I had the chance to run in and completely close my bedroom window, the wind blew a painting off the wall and knocked down everything on the dresser. Poor Pixel freaked out so bad I almost had to peel her off the ceiling.

There are trees and powerlines down all over the city, and in the nearby Blue Mountains, the town of Blackheath is blanketed in snow...and it's Spring. Hey, meus_venator, still want to come to Aus for a vacation? ;)

Here's what's happening around my hometown. PS: Now I have proof that Miley Cyrus is the antichrist - she turns up in Sydney and this shit happens...

Photo source Sydney Morning Herald

Comments

[blackrabbit42.livejournal.com]

I've heard that lightning strikes UP as often as it strikes down. In that first picture, it looks like that's what's happening.

Stay safe!!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

That shot was it hitting the top of the Sydney Tower and yeah, I think that's pretty much what's happened, it's going in both directions. It seems to do that with lightning rods. Weird but awesome!

I'm not venturing outside for anything!!

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Wow! I've heard there's snow in the hills!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Blackheath is completely blanketed in snow. It hailed badly enough in some parts of Sydney that it looked like snow as well. And I just saw a photo of the inside of the Lewisham train station. It's under water!!

[ash48.livejournal.com]

And they say there's no climate change...

[hunenka.livejournal.com]

Wow, that looks scary. Stay safe! And warm.

But hey, what if Miley Cyrus isn't the Antichrist - what if she's an archangel? (Remember Raphael and that huge storm?) Although I like the Antichrist theory better, so I'm gonna go with that.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

To think that just yesterday I was in a tank top and tonight I'm in a thick sweater and woolen socks.

Maybe the storm is the archangels coming to smite Miley. We can but dream.

[hunenka.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's a really rapid change of weather... definitely not something we're used to in the Czech Republic.

And yay to the smiting! We can always hope, right?

[ephermeralk.livejournal.com]

eeep!!! I HATE when it floods like that, and all the sewers back up, and just, UGH. (we had our sidewalks collapse one year =/ )

Looks like quite the storm, I am not envious at ALL. Stay safe, bb. Thinking safe thoughts for y'all...hopefully it'll pass soon!

So 100% proof that miley cyrus is the antichrist. I believe you there!

♥ ♥

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

It's the worst part about living in a big city; the drains etc just can't cope with the excess water. A few months ago we had torrential rain hit us out of nowhere while I was at the supermarket and walking back through it was hideous. I was wading through filthy thigh deep water in the street behind my place to get home. I'd seen it flood before but never that high. It was disgusting.

[apocalipskiss.livejournal.com]

I have a couple times like this every summer. Stay safe, honey!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Oh lordy, that's way too often!

[fufaraw]

I used to get all exhilarated and loved storms. Now I just want to hide under the bed with the cats. That's scary stuff--thank goodness for the window bars!

You and Pixel stay safe!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

I love watching electrical storms when the lightning isn't too close but it was the wind and rain that was terrifying last night. I was still surprised to see it was the number one trending topic on twitter!

[somer.livejournal.com]

Ooohh, that doesn't look good, not at all. Better stay in the house, keep safe. Hope the storm moves away soon.

I didn't know you were from Sydney. Was in Australia 2011, probably the typical tourist route. Sydney, Blue Mountains, Ayers Rock, Outback, Alice Springs, Great Barrier Reef. It was beautiful, I love Australia. We had good weather the whole three weeks. Seeing the pics now from Sydney is a little terrifying.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Australia is a beautiful place but we have some pretty terrifying things as well - massive droughts, ridiculous storms, and lots of very dangerous critters. But for the most part it's great, I really wouldn't want to live anywhere else :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

good grief! That is very scary, if spectacular. What a good job you had those bars on your window... Gulp. I have some Sydney lightning photos saved from about 10 years ago that looked something like this - not that I took, I've only ever been there once, for the Olympics and I'm happy to say, no storms!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Yeah the bars were definitely a saviour. I can't imagine how horrific it would have been to have broken glass all over with the rain and wind coming in destroying anything and having to wait until the very overrun emergency service could come to patch things.

I live in the inner city on the ground floor so the bars are an absolute must for safety reasons. Where I am is pretty damn great now but this was an extremely bad neighbourhood twenty years ago - probably Sydney's equivalent to what you read about places like Harlem. We still have an unsavoury element around but the area has been gentrified and it's pretty fabulous. After seven years here I'm used to the bars but when I first moved in it felt very weird to be in a cute little apartment that had windows like a jail cell.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Our hotel for the Olympics was next door to Kings Cross - it was funny walking to get the tube early morning and having all these bouncers trying to get us to go to a strip joint instead of the Olympic stadium!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Ha! The Cross is definitely an 'interesting' place.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

That is one spectacular but terrifying storm! Poor Pixel I hope she isn't too traumatised and that it has all settled down a bit now. I may sound thick as shit here but I had no idea you got snow in Australia!!

And yes, I've suspected for sometime that Miley is the anti-Christ and the twerking is her summoning Beelzebub!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

It doesn't snow in a lot of places and we're known more for our beaches and deserts so I don't think a lot of people realise we get snow too. About an hour or so out of greater Sydney is the Blue Mountains, they get snow every year and a couple of hours outside of the capital, Canberra, where I grew up are the Snowy Mountains (yes I know, very clever name) and the whole area is ski resorts. Other than that we'll get very rare freak snow in other parts of Australia. We've had the occasional light snow falls in Sydney every so often, and it's even snowed at Uluru (Ayer's Rock) which is in the middle of the desert! But that really was freaky.

Here's me and my cousin outside of Canberra when we were kids. I'm the one in the front dressed like a homeless person, lol.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Now you mention it I have heard of The Blue Mountains and skiing, but as you said it's not the image I have of Australia at all! Lovely pic of you in the snow too!

I hope you and Pixel are okay and the worst is over now.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

We were such goofball little kids.

Me and Pixel are all good now that the sun is out again :)

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

That SMH photo of the lightning strike is phenomenal, isn't it? Really apocalyptic! Storms like this are terrifying. Glad you survived the worst of it with minimal damage. Lots of cuddles with Pixel today, I'm thinking! :)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

It's a fantastic photo. I was on twitter just watching the tweets roll in and the very best one I saw was after someone posted that photo, someone replied to it with the line from Ghostbusters, "There is no Dana, only Zuel" and I cracked up laughing because it does look just like that scene. Wish I was clever enough to have thought it up.

No damage at my place except for some downed branches and awning upstairs torn off, but God, there are some shocking messes throughout Sydney. I think the SES are going to be flat out for the next week.

By 3am Pixel couldn't give a shit anymore, she curled up and slept through all the noise. I'm so going to start her own blog with her POV, the life and times of Pixel the wondercat :P

[meus_venator]

Yikes! Starts to rethink plans! LOL, well at least you can't freeze to death in Oz!
Stay safe and with the lightning the way it is, keep your head down.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Well you could, but only if you were in the areas that snow which are fairly few and far between, or Canberra where I grew up, which goes well into the minuses in winter. I prefer the cold to the heat now that I'm getting old but I could do without the rain and horrible winds. Although it's giving me a nice excuse to rug up with a hot coffee and do some more reading :)

And to think that only last week I was complaining about what a hot summer we're going to have because it was only a couple of days into Spring and it was 32 degrees which is about 89 degrees fahrenheit if I've done my conversion right. Today is 14 (57), brrrr.