Autumn storm...

[byslantedlight]

Because otherwise I'd have to get on with the day...





Rain and wind, a bit of tatty fence blown apart, but otherwise the sun's come out now. Still a bit windy in gusts, but brightly so!

It still manages to amaze me when people are only ever able to see things from their own little world though, rather than thinking that other people might be affected differently. Two people are known to have died from the storm so far, and there's trees over roads and on top of cars, and all sorts elsewhere, making me cross with the various commenters who're whinging on about the storm being uneventful. Most people are always okay, which is good, but if you don't have much money and your car's been crushed, then it is awful for you...

Whatever happened to asking if other people are okay...?

Comments

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I was wondering how the storm panned out - the last time I checked the news it was still on its way. And two people dying in the storm is a tragedy.

People are funny, though, the way they view disasters. I was talking with long-distance friends on Saturday night, and we were discussing another mutual friend who lives in the bushfire-affected Blue Mountains. They were saying how unlucky this person was, as she lost her cattery in the fire (not her cats, though!) and part of her rear deck. Unlucky???? Her house is still standing, unlike the houses on both sides and across the road. I'd say that was pretty damn lucky, myself.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I suppose it always depends on your viewpoint - the glass half-full or half-empty thing. I always struggle with that idea though - to me it's half a glass of water, not one or the other! *g*

I'd say your mutual friend was lucky that things weren't so much worse, but unlucky in that her life has been made pretty difficult for a while... I mean we're all lucky that we're not the people who're born into poverty and starvation and war, but it doesn't mean we don't hurt when other bad things happen to us, even if they're lesser in comparison... We all definitely need perspective - but a bit of empathy is pretty important too! It's the people who make huge generalisations that annoy me - nothing happened in this storm and the like, when what they're blithely telling everyone is that nothing happened to them, so they don't even count what might have happened to anyone else...

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I think it was lamentable that she lost her cattery. And it will make things difficult for her, trying to house her cats in the interim. But having lived in the Blue Mountains myself, and knowing that it is a bushfire-prone area, I think anyone who survives a fire that took out over 200 houses is doing pretty well luck-wise.

I do deplore the sweeping generalisations, though, and I know what you're saying there.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

I'm just busy being happy that people I know are okay - that was one heck of a scary storm last night. And some people think it was 'uneventful'? Blimey. Remind me not to go anywhere with them!

I love your rainy photos, especially the leaf.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the dramatic end was over your way - hope everyone's recovered by now.

And isn't the leaf fab - it was just lying there, all alone, being curvaceous and photogenic at me... *g*

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

I count us pretty lucky - no cranes or scaffolding fell in our immediate vicinity (per yr prev post *g*), but just a couple of substantial-but-not-enormous branches, that I had to sort of wriggle under in order to get down the stairs to where I could get a proper grip on them so Zoic#2 (from above) and I (from underneath) could move them aside; and a couple of (cheapskate neighbour's) bargain basement fence panels are gone so we're unsecured (I know it sounds a bit mean to blame the neighbour, but they just went and put this rock-bottom quality fencing up one day without telling anyone, and removed what was there before - though it did admittedly need replacing). We put them back up today, but they'll never hold. There were clean-up crews out in the street cutting up some seriously large branches blocking the road.

It was certainly not "uneventful", though. It was awful to see the news yesterday about that 14-year-old being swept out to sea - really heartbreaking. His poor family. To think the kids had gone specifically to see the storm waves - exactly the kind of level of danger that kids that age are overwhelmingly likely to be unable to judge.

I think we were lucky, all right.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it was relatively minor where you were - it seemed as if most of the dramatic wind-news came from London, so I did wonder... As you say though, definitely not uneventful, or even minor in general - not with four people dying as a direct result...

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

We've had dreadful storms this spring, without deaths, thankfully, and yes, just because one individual got off lightly doesn't mean that other people aren't affected....

Nice pics. :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

The whole world has weather... I wonder if this year has blown out of a particular weather-cycle - El Nino's the famous one, but I know there are others, reaching in all kinds of directions...

And thank you! *g*

[cloudless-9193.livejournal.com]

Great photos. I really like the leave!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It's such a gorgeous leaf, isn't it! Just lying there, begging to have its photo taken... *g*

Thank you!

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I'm stunned by the devastation in the south - and very thankful we hadn't booked a ferry for this week. Manchester got off lightly - wind, yes, and rain, yes, but nothing out of the ordinary. I thought about you, because you posted right at the beginning of the storm, and I'm glad you weren't too badly affected. There have been deaths in Germany, Holland and northern France, too. A really nasty end to October.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Just read about the storm hitting other countries too - not nice... I suppose there's always been such devastating weather, but we didn't all hear about it at the same time...

I'm glad you hadn't booked your ferry for this week too! *g*

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

Wonderful pics, especially the last two! There's a fair few big trees down in these here parts, including at Kew apparently :( And that horrible gas explosion after a tree hit a house up the road in Hounslow. Very devastating.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I like the last two pics too - such sunshine there was! *g*

But yeah - gas explosions and crushed caravans, and oh, awful things for people too...