What's it like to go through a cyclone?

Well Larry has been and gone and it's hard to believe it's all over (except for the clean up)
We spent most of Sunday moving anything that wasn't bolted down, into the shed, taking out gas bottles, and stuff like tarps and the ladder that we might need. Damian 'aquired' some star pickets and did a great job of lashing down the shed. We taped up all our windows (that I had just washed) :( and made sure the cars had fuel should we be evacuated. We then packed all our valuable paperwork like birth certs, passports, insurance papers etc into waterproof bags along with medications, mobile phones, wallets, spare clothes and some non perishable food. This is because, if we either lost the roof or were evacuated, you don't have time to gather all these things together. These were put in the strongest room along with our video cameras and cyclone box that had our candles, radio and tracking maps. We then put all our doonas and spare matresses in our room, should the house start to break up we would need them to protect ourselves. That all taken care of, I went to the supermarket to get some large wheelie bin bags to put over the computer, T.Vs and stereo (should we spring leaks) and a couple more tins of dog food - what a mistake! It was absolute chaos, I had to park in the fast food place next door as the carpark at the centre was gridlocked. Coles was a nightmare, people's trolleys were overflowing and some people had two trolleys. Don't these people plan ahead? We've known we might get this days ago. Anyway, a nice Coles man put me through on the front ciggie counter cause I only had a couple of things, the lines at the register were threaded back down the aisles!! Once home again, I started to fill the washing machine, laundry tub, bath and any other large containers with water. I have been saving our juice bottles and had about 30 stored in the roof. We filled all those too and froze some to keep our freezer and fridge cold should we loose power. That might seem like a lot of water, but we had 4 adults, 2 kids, 2 big dogs and a cat. Even if we lost water just for a day, we'd need to flush toilets, wash dishes, cook, and still have about 14 litres just to drink. Realistically, if we lost water it might be more like 3 days before we got it back. I looked after Jazz then, while Damian went with Marisol to the SES to help her fill some sandbags to put along her back door. Their backyard floods badly during even a normal day of rain. (Shane was at work at Skyrail helping to lockdown the gondolas and secure all the cablelines) So by about 4pm we were well prepared and having had a picture perfect day weather wise, it was hard to imagine what the next 24 hours would bring. I learned that with a big cyclone, you always have a beautiful day beforehand, as the cyclone draws all the surrounding rain and cloud into itself. The stillness outside was really eerie, it was absolutely quiet, the birds were nowhere to be seen or heard, no bats flew over at dusk, the sky had an orangy glow, and the clouds were starting to move across. The calm before the storm!
We were now getting dreadfull siren alerts over the radio and T.V every half hour or so and were keeping up with the hourly updates on the B.O.M website. Shane, Jazz & Marisol came over about 7.30, Shane put his bike in our garage, they unloaded their spare gas bottle, tin food and their perishable food, then they drove my car and theirs back home to leave their car in their garage. When they got back, we settled them in and put the kids to bed. We ate dinner glued to either the telly or computer, saying very little, all silently willing it to suddenly vere south and track along the coast. At about 11.30, we all crashed out.
I woke at 1.30, it had started to rain, just softly, but the anticipation of what was to come, wouldn't let me go back to sleep and I had to get up. I had a shower (this was the best I might smell for a while!) and started to work through the house, closing windows on the side that would get hit first. I got the dogs some fresh water and shut the gate across to keep them near the house, just in case we lost any fences that would let them escape. I boiled up heaps of water for coffees then Marisol got up, she was in a bit of a state. She was feeling sick, she was really frightened and was shaking. I did what I could to try to re-assure her and decided that distraction was needed. I put on a Kath & Kim video and although it was hot, she felt cold so we wrapped her up in a rug on the couch and gave her some aspro for her headache. I checked the BOM site once more and shut down the computer. I unplugged all unnecessary electrical stuff and stayed with Marisol for a while. I tried to explain to her what she might hear, and how it would stop and start again, trying not to frighten her. In the end it was concentrating on looking after Jazz that pulled her out of it. We lost power about 2.30am, by now it was like a very gusty electrical storm, but nothing worse than I had experienced in Melbourne. We lit the house up with candles and it looked really beautiful. Shane got up and like me, was scared, but quite excited too, he wanted this to happen so we were blaming him now. We all sleepily peeked out of the louvres and became windswept and interesting. By now, the smaller trees and palms were bending over quite a bit and being tossed about as the wind picked up. The radio updates told us it was still 75ks from the coast. At about 4am we were getting strong bursts of wind that were preceeded by a dull roar, the noise at that stage was a bit like rolling thunder. Radio reports at about 7am had the wind gusts at 180ks. It was light by now and we could see a lot more outside. Damian was up now too and was concerned the shed was going to go, no amount of me pleading that he could do nothing now anyway, convinced him that he shouldn't go outside and have a look - he continued this throughout and twice I caught him edging his way along the house to check on the shed. The dogs were not fussed at all, in fact Madi was out in it at one stage, nose to the sky, eyes closed like she was in a blizzard. The roar became louder and louder and gave us warning of stronger winds. We lost track of time once the kids got up, they were fascinated by the wind and rain and wanted to go "owside". Trying to keep them away from the windows was a challenge as that's all they wanted to do, that and play with the phone and portible radios. We were beginning to hear loud cracks and crashes as the big trees along the creek started to split and fall. There was leaf confetti swirling everywhere and branches and palm leaves airborne. The wind initially was coming from the west so we were relatively protected by the hills beside us. I was like "is that it, is that as bad as it's getting" Damian, who had been through a cat 5 cyclone in Townsville said nothing just shook his head - no. When the eye had passed and the wind changed to NE the buffeting really started. The roar was constant and was like being in a tunnel with a train comming. The wind was constant now too and the trees bordering our property were frequently sideways, the big trees were being shredded on the side where the wind hit them and already we could see the skyline changing and big gaps appearing through the forest. The rain drove across in thick sheets, these smashed into the walls and blew off again still in sheets. Now I was all at once, excited, and scared and could hardly believe what we were seeing. The pool was looking like a pond with all the debris, the frangipanni tree decided on a swim and bigger branches were being deposited on the road and around peoples gardens. Just when we thought that it couldn't possibly get any stronger it would whoosh and roar and lash through even faster - the anticipation that any minuit, something was going to come crashing through a window or the roof sheeting was going to start peeling off was exhausting. The adrenalin surged and waned so often that today, I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I was mainly worried about the noise terrifying Kylin if that happened. The last radio report that I remember had the wind at over 200ks I have no idea how long this lasted, but suddenly, it was over, just gentle rain and small gusts of wind. We didn't need the radio to tell us it had passed, the birds were back! We put Kylin to bed and waited for an hour or so to make sure it had well and truely gone and wasn't swinging back again. Hardly able to believe how incredibly lucky we had been, we ventured out into the back yard and excitedly pointed out to each other, trees and fences that had come down and new views through the forest. The creek was full of trees and shrubs and piled high everywhere around our fences was just a tangled mess of fallen trees. We have underground power so we didn't have to worry about lines on the ground (lines and lines and lines and lines) we surveyed the street and all seemed pretty unscathed. Shane wanted to go home to see if all was OK, Damian went with him and when they returned, we got a clearer picture of just how lucky we had been. Although their backyard is a mess, the shade cloth is shredded and the pole snapped in two, their house is ok and their car was fine. The destruction they described between here and there was very sobering. We are on a very sheltered block here and are so gratefull that the lady who built this house had the foresight to do the things she did to ensure it was built to maximum cyclone standards. This morning we were shocked to see the extent of the damage to the trees along forest gardens boulevarde, the sales centre was almost covered in giant palm trees and lots of the beautiful big trees along the pond have been uprooted. It's such a big mess everywhere that we have seen so far, but could have been so much worse.
We are all exhausted today, but so very happy and gratefull that we and our homes survived.
Thank you to all of you who sent us e-mails or called last night, we are sorry you were so worried but very gratefull for your thoughts and love, and to Wayne & Kim who called us from Paris on Sunday night - XX - thank you!