A Eurobodalla woman is waiting in anguish to hear from her parents who spent the night in a shower block while tropical Cyclone Debbie hammered the North Queensland coast.
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Kristy Mangu told the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner she had not heard from Steve and Rhonda Connaughton since 11am Tuesday, when the Moruya couple was bracing for the category 4 cyclone.
Mrs Mangu said the couple had spent the past three months in a caravan on a farm-stay property in a rural area of Bowen and sheltered with their dogs in the shower block to ride out the storm.
“We knew the cyclone was coming, but it was too late for Mum and Dad to leave,” Mrs Mangu said.
“There had already been flooding in the area and they were supposed to head back down south some time last week, but were stopped by the weather.”
Since the caravan was unsafe in the storm, Mrs Mangu said they had the option of hunkering down in a partially-enclosed shed or a donga (a shelter used on a mine site), but deemed the shower block safer.
The Connaughtons did not sleep on Monday night, preparing for the worst.
“I spoke to them the night before and it wasn’t too bad then, it was the calm before the storm. I spoke to them at about 4 or 5am on the morning of the cyclone and they hadn’t slept at that point,” she said.
Despite the impending disaster, Rhonda retained her sense of humour, describing the weather as “raining cats and dogs” and a “tad more than a bit windy”.
Until power was cut on Tuesday morning, Mrs Mangu said she had kept in contact on the phone and through Facebook. But on Wednesday at lunchtime after more than 24 hours without contact, Mrs Mangu was worried.
I’m concerned because they are isolated.
- Kristy Mangu
“If they were in a typical home within the vicinity of Bowen so they could yell out to the neighbours, I’d feel a lot better about it. I’m concerned because they are isolated,” she said.
Bowen remains one of the worst cyclone-affected towns, with more than 63,000 homes reported to be without power and flash flooding cutting roads the the area.
Mrs Mangu said she had witnessed destructive tropical cyclones in Cairns during Cyclone Yasi. She said it was a bitter irony that the same fears her parents expressed for her during the 2011 storm were being played out for her during the current weather event.
With parts of the region cut off to emergency services, Mrs Mangu did not know when she would hear from her parents.
