Helena Driscoll spent a frantic 24 hours sourcing a generator to keep her severely disabled son alive for when they lost power.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Zachary, 21, lives with cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability and epilepsy, and relies on electricity to keep him alive because he's fed through a tube requiring a pump.
"What's going to happen when his pump runs out of battery and we've got no power?" Ms Driscoll, who lives on the southern outskirts of Brisbane, said.
"He's also in a fully electric bed and he has to be hoisted, and that's all electric."
Thinking ahead, she reached out on social media as people prepared for the now-downgraded cyclone Alfred - and the generous community responded.
A generator was delivered to her home and a local support worker came to stay with them as the weather system approached.
"It begs a lot of questions though about what happens to people who haven't managed to source all of that," she said.
Their home lost power on the evening of March 8.
'Trees down everywhere'
On Saturday, March 8, there were nearly 300,000 homes and businesses across south-east Queensland and northern NSW without power.
The hospital treating Marie Carvolth's mother was forced to run on backup generator power.
With electricity lines down in her street, no power to her Gold Coast home, and a fridge full of food going off, she couldn't go to visit either.
"She'll be pretty anxious at the moment in this because, apparently, they're saying essential power only at the hospital, so she's not even allowed to charge her phone," Ms Carvolth - who was waiting out the storm with her husband and 11-year-old son in Currumbin - said.
"There's trees down everywhere and power lines down everywhere ... but, of course, that makes it emotionally challenging not being able to be with your mum who has [over] the last two weeks needed a lot of support."
No sleep without electricity
Robert Quirk, who lives in the Tweed Valley on the state border about five kilometres from the coast, also needs electricity - to sleep.
The sugar cane farmer who, along with neighbours, moved 22 tractors to high ground as the cyclone approached land, has sleep apnea and uses a life-supporting breathing device.
"We've never been without power for this long - ever," he said on the morning of March 8 as he anxiously awaited more flooding from torrential rain.
"I got half an hour's sleep there a while ago while the generator was going," he said.
Down in Lismore on the NSW Northern Rivers, Max Poolman's primary school had been closed.
"We taped up my windows in my bedroom because they blow open when it's windy - and it's very windy now," he wrote for ACM's Voice of Real Australia newsletter.
"We also made sure my trampoline was tied down tight and we brought in everything that was outside, so it won't blow away."
'Playing Russian roulette'
Marie Carvolth is a co-founder of Parents for Climate and worries about her son's future as weather events become more extreme and unpredictable.
The early March cyclone warning was the first for NSW since 1990.
"We'll do anything to keep our kids safe," she said.
"And nowadays, that's not just doing the laundry and packing lunch boxes and getting them to school on time. That's also addressing climate change."
She said watching the weather was like "playing Russian roulette".
"When's it our turn?
"And now, here we are - and now, very unfortunately, scarily, it's our turn."
The insurance industry has not ruled out declaring an "insurance catastrophe" due the winds, rain, storm surges and flooding caused by this weather event.
Got something to add or a story to tell? Leave a comment or email the journalist, saffron.howden@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Saffron Howden
Twice weekly
Voice of Real Australia
Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over.
