don't mess with Mother Nature

yeeesh! weather is CRAZY sometimes.

yesterday i had the first of my 3 final exams, and it was held at the hospital. Thankfully I wasn't in the last exam group, cuz during that time a storm hit Canberra and hit the hospital pretty hard. there were winds of 100 km/h, mini tornadoes, and crazy lightening. some of my classmates who were in the last group had their cars damaged -- windows blown in by the window, and one girl's rear windshield being crushed by tree!

in fact, while the storm was at its peak, we were supposed to be driving home from the hospital. luckily, us girls made a stop at the mall close to the hospital first. AND, due to my cheapass-ness, i suggested that we park in the underground lot, b/c it's free, whereas surface parking you hafta pay. when we got to the mall, there was no evidence of a storm. after we left the mall, there was just rain and lightening, but nothing crazy. on the way home though, we saw so many uprooted trees. the first and biggest one was HUGE, and all of its roots were pointing up in the air. right after we passed this tree, a firetruck pulled up beside it, and we couldn't really figure out why.

the whole way back, we were just shocked to see what we saw cuz the weather really wasn't that bad. i guess we missed it all while within the safe confines of the shopping mall -- we weren't even there that long, 30-45 minutes only.

anyway, i found out that someone had actually died in the storm b/c a tree fell on him. it happened right where i saw that big tree overturned, i think it was the same tree. they say the tree was 1m in diameter, and only took 30 sec to blow over. to make it even more close to home, this is what one of my classmates posted on the discussion board:

It was pretty scary over this way. Unfortunately, I was on my way to pick up the girls when that huge tree blew over and killed that poor man in Curtin. I went over and tried to help him but I think he had probably already died. I wasn't able to find a pulse and because he was pinned face down I couldn't get underneath him to do any compressions. I ended up just sitting there with him, holding his hand and talking to him in the pouring rain until the ambos came. Very sad, and devastating for his family so close to Christmas.

scary stuff. if that had been me there, i don't know if i'd be able to function. but this lady (my classmate) is a nurse, and i'm sure she's able to handle it. ironically, part of our exams yesterday was CPR!

i went out for dinner later on, and the sights were amazing. there were trees lying atop of cars -- not even crushing them, just looking like they had been delicately placed there. i wish i had my camera... it was crazy. another one had fallen down lengthwise btwn two cars, not damaging them at all. and at another location on campus, a car couldn't get out of the lot b/c a fallen tree was blocking the exit

anyway, i'm going back to the books now. just thought i'd make a note of this experience, cuz i'll probably forget it soon -- my memory's so bad!

hope you're all well, and are as blessed and lucky as i am.

xo, bea