Gradient Wind Analysis: Heidi 120x120cm acrylic on canvas 2012
This my entry for the 2012 Hedland Art Awards. It is a wind map of Tropical Cyclone Heidi that crossed the coast of Port Hedland in the early hours of January 12, 2012. My first ever cyclone, and a direct hit. Thankfully it was only a category 2. Two months later Tropical Cyclone Lua (seriously, who is responsible for naming these cyclones? They are cyclones after all, not puppy dogs) devastated Pardoo, some 150km north east of Port Hedland. It was a category 4. I remember seeing footage taken by the owners of the road house. The rain was coming in vertical, forcing it's way through every gap and crack it could find. Light fittings became water features, bowsers were blown over, as in out of the ground. Watching it on television was terrifying. Although there was something of a let down in the community that it missed us altogether - we went to red alert. The school closed, the shops closed, the port closed. It is actually illegal to be out of your house on red alert. Then to have nothing happen (I actually think it's windier today than it was on March 17), was sort of disappointing, but after seeing that footage I was so grateful. I am convinced our 'house' (fibro shack with gaping holes in both floors and walls) would have resembled a live in swimming pool.
Heidi was frightening because of the unknown. It went from a category 1 to a category 2 and tracked from 200km south west of Port Hedland to a direct hit. I learned of our upgrade from blue alert to yellow alert from the deli staff at Woolies. Being my first cyclone I was not yet familiar with the terminology or their meaning. By early afternoon we were on red. It was windy. By night the wind had intensified. We went to bed at 11pm and lay awake listening to the wind. I kept thinking 'it can't blow any harder', and then it would ramp it up a little more. It was dark, it was raining, there was nothing to see, yet I had to look out of the window. The palm trees were bent forward. There was no gusty, there was just relentless howling wind. The eye of the storm passed through around 5am, by which time I had finally gone to sleep. That day was spent in a daze of sleeplessness. The all clear was given around lunch time. We had minimal damage. A lot of leaf litter and puddles, and the back fence which came awry (and six months later is yet to be fixed. I may have mentioned this in a previous blog).
So I am grateful my first cyclone was not a category 4 and I eagerly anticipate the opening of the Hedland Art Awards.
