Handy tips you can use if your caught in the path of a cyclone, Cyclone Jasper storms the Far North Queensland Coast
Aioli everyone, how are you all doing? In this week's blog, Wilz reflects on her experiences with Cyclone Japser, this post was inspired by all the people my family and I have chatted to recently who have never been through a cyclone and didn't know what to expect.
If you have never been through a cyclone we hope, if in the unfortunate chance that you have to go through one, we hope that reading about our experience here can give you some insight and tips to keep safe and well, but the best advice we can ultimately give you is to follow the advice official authorities give you, be prepared and stay safe.

Before we start this blog, we want to preface it but saying, that we are by no means experts, please take our advice at your own risk, these are just our experiences and tips we have learned going through past cyclones and this current one Jasper. But please always heed the warnings given to you by authorities, they are there to keep you safe and out of danger. If you would like to see some images and videos to accompany what we have shared here in the blog, you are more than welcome to check out our Instagram account @_walkwithwilz_.
Sunday & Monday 10,11/12/2023
On Sunday, the authorities were warning us that Cyclone Jasper was on his way to cross the coast, but with cyclones being so unpredictable, his path was not clear. It was on this day we took the chance to visit the stores in the city to stock up on supplies that we thought we would need to prepare and to get us through the cyclone period.
When we mention supplies, we were making sure that we had enough of all our medications, enough food and water that we could use if we had no power, batteries for torches and safety equipment such as ropes and tape if we needed to secure things down around the yard.
Our thought process for preparing supplies was do we have enough to keep us supplied for a week, if not then stock it up. If you are wondering why we are referencing a week as a time frame, it is because we live across from a beachfront and in a flood-prone area and in the past we have been cut off for a week or 2 so having enough for a week at best is a good safeguard, but if you are ever caught in this position please make sure you have enough supplies for a few days to a week at best to be safe.
The next day, on Monday, it was yard clean up day, we made sure everything that was lose was secured or tied down so that if it did get loose it could not travel far. Our yard went from lots of bit and pieces here and there to being bare and stowed away.
My mother also has a wealth of hanging plants, so they all had to be taken down and stored just in case. In the process of just one day we had pulled apart the yard and cleared up the garage/carport.
Tuesday 12/12/2023
Tuesday or we should call it arms day, we spent the afternoon at the beach loading up some sandbags to reinforce some areas of our carport/garage that are prone to surface water flooding. Every time we had been to Bunnings throughout the year, my sister had been good at buying packs of 10 hessian bags that we could fill in times of emergency like this to baracade from the waters.
20 sandbags later and a few hours later, we could safely say we were stuffed, don't let them fool you when you see them on the news filling up bags and throwing them into the back of ute, looking so easy, cause it is so NOT!
It is hard work, no wonder they use carrying loaded bags as a tough form of exercise or torture, cause just carrying them up the embankment at beach to the car, loading and then offloading them was so exhausting, but they did do a good job for the most part, but we did also find working on our water drainage issues helped a lot too, it helped to allow the water drain away more easily rather than pooling up and flooding over our carport.
But just a word of warning, if you are planning or going to sandbag an area, give yourself plenty of time to do it, because it is exhausting work, shovelling in the sand is easy enough but when it comes to lifting and moving the bags around, its back-breaking work, defiantly a tip we have learned for next time.
Wednesday 13/12/2023
Wednesday was D-Day, Cyclone Jasper was forecasted to cross the coast sometime today. At this stage, it was a watch-and-wait game, watching the forecast maps and waiting to see if it was going to come our way, but for the most part, we got lucky because he decided to cross the coast a lot more north than us.
While they say the southern side of the cyclone is the most destructive, we didn't find it too bad, but each cyclone is different given its category and strength. But as they say, be prepared for lots of wind and rain because that is mostly what you will get and we are still getting up till now, while the cyclone has passed and been downgraded to a tropical low, we are still under a severe weather warning thanks to its remanents, it was a day of torrential rain, a mighty king tide and lots and lots of wind.
While it is nice to see the sights of the destruction the wild weather was brining, we did head to the beach to see the wild waves of the king tide thoroughly thrashing the shoreline, but if you do head out sightseeing please heed the warnings to stay safe, and be sure to take all the necessary safety precautions so you don't come to any harm.
Thursday 14/12/2023
While the cyclone has now died out and had become a lot of fizzling rain and showers, we were still under the severe weather warning, so like yesterday, we spent most of the day indoors, bunkered down out of the elements.
To keep ourselves occupied we started some drafting some material here on the website and did some small odd jobs around the house, and in the afternoon we took a short walk on the beach seeing the remains of a couple of days of king tides.
That brings us to now
On the news tonight they reported we still have another couple of days of rain to go before we can expect a change, so while the rain slows down we hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and it has been of some help to you.
If you have been through a cyclone before, we invite you to share some of your memories in the comments and if you haven't we invite you to share a scary experience you have been through,
If you enjoy this blog please sign up to follow the blog, and share it with your family and friends, we always look forward to your engagement with our site and your comments,
That is Wilz for now, take care, travel safely and let's keep walking on this journey called life, peace out
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 'article' posts Monday
 'blog' posts Friday
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