melbourne, yesterday.

yesterday, melbourne was struck by winds traveling around 100-120kph. there was a bit of rain and a bit of hail in some parts, but mostly it was just pure unadulterated gusts of air. at least two had been reported dead, and a lot of suburbs had power outages.

at 1.45pm, there was a blackout in my workplace. and we were sent home. cars were all over the place, with most traffic lights out of order. it took us a while to get home, because speeding up would mean that a draft might pass through under the car and topple us over. and the pounding rain didn't help at all. it was a bit reminiscent of philippine super-typhoon conditions, just a bit worse as there were no high-rise buildings to break wind speed.

it just made me think, no matter how advanced a country may seem, it is nothing compared to force majeure.