‘Lost everything': ‘Bomb cyclone' no fizzer

Yahoo

2 days ago

Last week's weather system has come and gone, and although many along Australia's east coast copped more their fair share of the wild conditions, many more in Sydney were left wondering if a day of mild rain and strong wind really lived up to the hype of a 'bomb cyclone'.
In a reminder that just because a weather system doesn't affect you doesn't mean it hasn't had devastating effects, Mani Kennedy from Long Jetty on the NSW Central Coast says her family has 'lost everything' due to the storm.
'At around 4ish (on Tuesday, July 1) I heard this big noise, we were all inside, me, my husband and my 10-year-old daughter,' Ms Kennedy said.
'The roof peeled off like a banana. The police were driving past just by chance. They came straight away and told us we had to leave because parts of the roof were flying everywhere.
'We pretty much left straight away, we didn't have a chance to gather anything.'
Mani and husband Clint are now faced with finding a place to live while trying to care for their young daughter Jazmin, who they say has been thoroughly shaken up by the event.
'She's pretty traumatised. She cries every day. Now it's school holidays, it's become even harder. Her teacher told us in the first couple of days she was back that she was crying to everyone,' Ms Kennedy said.
'It's not easy. She lost everything. She had her own drawings, her artwork she had put up on the wall. She had her toys, everything.
'Afterwards we took her back there because we don't have anywhere to drop her off. Anywhere we go, she goes with us. The rain coming through had destroyed everything. She cries a lot.'
Ms Kennedy said just because some areas weren't as badly hit as others didn't mean the system should be dismissed outright.
'I think that's the most extreme situation we've been in. I can't speak for others' experiences, but we lost everything, literally everything,' she said.
'My husband had his work tools there, they were destroyed as well. To us, it was as big as it could be.'
The Kennedys have been temporarily housed by the Department of Community Justice but say in the absence of having extended family to turn to urgently need help covering costs as the recovery process begins.
'There's no stability. It feels the same as being homeless, even though we have emergency accommodation,' Ms Kennedy said.
'We don't know for how long we can stay here, and the rent anywhere else we can't afford. I don't know where we stand once this emergency accommodation finishes.
'My husband has been living there for 20 years and I've been there for the last 14 years. 'There's nothing we can recover. We never planned on leaving that place. We lived there for that long and now we have nowhere to go.
'I was about to study for a teacher's degree. I can no longer do that.'
The family has started a GoFundMe page to help with caring for their daughter, daily necessities, and essential appliances.