Stormy Weather

While I was lying awake at 1, 1.30 and 2am this morning listening to the pouring rain and continuous thunder and watching the lightening flicker around the edges of the blind, I started composing this entry. Something along the lines of how the storm seemed to go on forever and I couldn�t remember a storm like it.

At the time I was embellishing, as one does, particularly as I thought the length and ferocity of the storm was probably just heightened because I didn�t get to sleep before it started and then couldn�t get to sleep because it was so loud and light.

Then I woke up later this morning and discovered it wasn�t heightened by my wakefulness at all. They estimate it was the worst storm in 50-100 years.

Instead of moving across the whole city over a period of a couple of hours, it spent more than two hours hovering over one part of the city with continuous lightening and torrential rain. And thunder. You know the sound of a plane passing overhead at a decent height, that low rumble? Imagine that for two hours straight with the occasional louder bang.

Three times the average monthly rainfall in two hours.

Freeways literally turning into rivers. They had to send something called the �Maritime Response Unit� out to a five lane freeway in order to rescue people from their cars. Rescue them by boat. From chest-high water.

The windows in an entire row of shops were shattered by a wave of water caused by a passing truck. The contents of the shops then floated away on the flood.

There was giant hail, though thankfully not over my house.

Oh, and the really good news: more of the same forecast for today and tonight and it�s pretty dark out there now.

Of course the reason I wasn�t asleep by midnight when the storm started was entirely my own fault. My Alias Season 2 DVDs arrived yesterday. Betty and I plonked down to watch the first two episodes and then she went to bed and I settled into the extras. She�s not allowed to watch the extras because she hasn�t seen the rest of the season yet and will be totally spoiled if he exposes himself to the joys of the gag reel or the behind the scenes stuff. I, of course, can�t wait until we�ve got through all 22 episodes before checking them out, especially as it will probably take us weeks to get through the eps what with Christmas and other festivities interfering with all important TV watching.

I had only just dragged myself away from the TV at midnight when the lightening started properly. It was then so constant and bright that there was no way of getting to sleep, and I felt it probably wasn�t wise to turn the TV back on in the middle of an electrical storm. So I ended up with about 4 hours sleep. Ah well.