Marcus' Mayhem

The date is 17 March 2018. The time now is 9.00pm. As of writing, majority of Stuart Park has no power. Water supplies have been disrupted. A huge number of trees have been flung across roads, onto cars and houses and other buildings. Sign posts have been ripped. We have heard of 2 explosions that have occurred. Much wildlife have been injured and some have strayed away from their migratory paths. That's what Cyclone Marcus has left behind. 

A cyclone alert was issued on the afternoon of 15 March 2018. With the cyclone showing no signs of slowing down, it was upgraded to a Category 2 status on 16 March. Soon after, we were informed of flight cancellations which meant that our flights to Brisbane were called-off too. 

Stuck in Darwin, we realised that we needed to stock up on some groceries ( we had initially cleaned out the fridge in preparation for our trip). At Coles, we realised that most staple food had been sold out. These were the scenes that greeted us there.

On the morning of 17 March, the first signs of Marcus were seen and felt. We closely monitored BOM to for status updates while relatively strong winds blew across our apartment intermittently. By about 10am, things started getting serious. Some smaller trees had fallen across our street and it had started to rain as well. This escalated even further as we saw the roof of an apartment almost blow off. A ceiling fan was swinging wildly in the distance while more trees had fallen. We also took this time to take some photos of our first cyclone experience. 

After 2 hours or so, things became fairly quiet as the wind and rain weakened, possibly due to us being in the eye of the cyclone. About an hour thereafter, strong winds started blowing again and trees were swaying once again, this time in the opposite direction. Many of our friends sent us messages through social media and Whatsapp urging us to stay safe. Thankfully for us, we did not experience any first hand damage and our utility supply managed to survive the ordeal.

By about 3pm, Marcus had continued along his journey down the North-Western coast of Australia. News of disruptions, damage and losses started to circulate. Some were left without water, some had their homes and cars severely damaged by falling trees and power cables. Traffic lights were not in operation, roads blocked and most shops were understandably shut. 

On a positive note, it was good to see many helpful samaritans out and about helping one another to clear the distruction. Emergency services were well underway in removing traffic obstructions and resolving power and water outages. The city council staff were making rounds assessing damage. 

We have experienced our first cyclone. It was Cat 2 and it left a trail of destruction that was severe enough. Here are some photos showing the aftermath of Cyclone Marcus.