At around 9 PM last night, Raquel and I had just finished watching something on TV and had turned the TV off for the night. All was quiet for a few seconds but then, a roaring sound started to come from outside the house. We wondered what the sound was. It was like a couple of aeroplanes were flying low and headed straight for our house. Actually, it sounded like the sound effect used in movies when it had to show a creeping wave of energy after an explosion like in the Independence Day film.
Needless to say, we were both freaked out by the sound that steadily grew louder with each passing second. It didn’t help that we watch the TV show Jericho which was about a small town needing to fend for itself after the major cities of the US were destroyed with nuclear bombs.
And then, boom! Suddenly, our house was in a middle of gale-force winds (or at least, it seemed to be). The wind was the strongest I’ve ever experienced personally in Australia thus far. Groaning sounds came from our ceiling as the wind battered our house. We heard the sound of what could be hail stones falling down on our roof but when we peeked out the window, it wasn’t raining and there was no hail. Only falling dust and debris. The lights in the house flickered briefly but the lights on the street lamps gave out.
The strong wind went on for several minutes more. It was very bizarre. My imagination ran wild in my head. Was this the end of the world? What could’ve caused such a sudden change of weather?
Soon, it was over and our house was still in one piece. Thank God.
Today, we found out that it wasn’t a localised incident but affected most of western Victoria including Geelong and Ballarat. According to The Age article Winds wreak havoc across state, “State Emergency Service volunteers have had a busy night, answering more than 600 calls for assistance as strong winds wreaked havoc across Victoria.”
In hindsight, it wasn’t really all the bad. We’ve experienced worse weather in the Philippines. It was only freaky because it came so suddenly. That and we didn’t know exactly how much strong winds our new house can endure. At least we’re lucky enough to come out of it with no problems.