Dark age

A loud ‘fut!’ and the power tripped out. Everywhere. Offices, schools, hospitals, trains, traffic lights, homes, show, pubs. Everywhere. The whole of South Australia. A whole state. The Triple J radio news said ‘5,000 homes without power’ but it would be closer to a million. Then all the people decide to drive home at the same time, in the driving rain, a motoring free for all. I passed one junction with a traffic cop directing, the other intersections were a nervous game of chicken. In a grid city there are a lot of intersections. Remarkably, but maybe a testament to the South Aussie spirit, I saw little aggravation, but much resilience and patience. After forty minutes of going nowhere, I gave up and found a wine bar on Hutt Street, El Torino, with a cash bar and candles. Being close to the TV studios, Channel Ten popped in to get some footage. It’s the greatest storm I’ve experienced, some say a cyclone. Worse was expected the next day. Twitter was  the only source of information (and misinformation), but then the mobile network went down. Stormaggedon, the return of the Dark Ages. Will publish when the power returns.