Hi everyone,

The shelter held as predicted but it was a long night with roaring wind and almost no sleep.

It's 8am and we are not getting let out as yet - Ita is still not too far from Cookown, and not too long ago still sent howling winds.

As much as we can see out the window, there are broken trees, a lot of debris on the ground, rain, wind and grey skies - your usual post cyclone sight. It's not a pretty one.

But because a lot of people asked, I thought I'll send a report about the things as they are at this stage.

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In This Issue:

• The Night with the Roaring Ita

• Feedback Always Welcome

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THE NIGHT WITH THE ROARING ITA

As the darkness fell, the winds strengthened and continued to do so later into the night, everyone was waiting, listening and guessing - is it Ita yet?

But most people had gone to bed before it finally arrived some time after midnight.

It was all a gradual thing, starting gradually with howling winds, which over I'd say about an hour developed to roaring winds, and that was the scary part.

We could see out the window until the lights went out outside, and what we saw was really violent winds and trees bending.

I never thought that the shelter would not stand, but it did get hammered pretty properly.

At the peak of the winds it sounded like there were some things breaking outside, probably a few trees snapping, and some noise of corrugated iron flapping and possibly being ripped off.

The peak was quite obvious with constant roaring - noisy like a train, and then it was just as obvious when the peak ended and everything started gradually downgrading.

At that point I was so tired with almost no sleep the night before, that I forgot to check what the time was and just went to sleep.

When I first woke up 3.38am, the wind was still howling but no longer roaring.

I don't want to talk about the damage before I have seen it first hand - there is a lot of talk but how much is true I wonder.

I'll write about that once we have got out and I have had a look around.

I hope this doesn't get too much for some people - there is likely two more reports to come on the subject - a damage one, and then a little longer term road impact one for early season travellers.

 
FEEDBACK ALWAYS WELCOME

I really appreciate any kind of feedback on the Destination Guide.

Please let me know if you enjoyed it while planning before the trip, and while using the information once on the trip.

If you get any questions about anything, please feel welcome to contact me.

That's all for this time - happy planning everyone :-)

Katrin


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