Catastrophe in Perth

We had a freak storm in Perth today.

It was… in a word… freaky.

At around 4.00pm, the lights in our office started flickering.

Minutes later it was as if someone had switched the lights off outside, and a blanket of darkness swooped over the city.

The sound of hailstones pattering on the windows made us jump out of our seats. Everyone left their desks to stare outside the windows as we watched the ice pile up on the pavement below us and on the roof of the smaller building next to us.

Apparently the hailstones were as big as golf balls.

Image from perthnow

The hailstorm ended as abruptly as when it first started. Then came the rain, pouring down in torrents.

This is so totally the wrong day to leave my umbrella in the car. But I managed to tumpang under my colleague’s umbrella up to the turn off to the busport from the terrace.

The scene along the terrace was crazy… people tearing frantically down in the rain, most of them, like me, were caught unprepared. In some spots, we were wading ankle deep in water. I noticed some ladies were holding their shoes in their hand and just braving the puddles barefoot.

Through friends’ sms’es and twitter updates, we learnt that there was a power outage affecting the greater part of the Perth metro.

We were bracing ourselves for another romantic evening of dinner by candlelight but it seems our area was spared tonight. That is why I am able to sit here in front of the laptop to tell you all this.