“Like an explosion,” is how Parklands resident Shiralee Dinnison described the tornado which hit their house last Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve tried to describe it to people and an explosion is the only way I can do it,” she said.
“People hear me say that and go, ‘Yeah, right’. But then they come and look at the damage, and they get it.”
Luckily, Ms Dinnison and her husband Bevan we’re not injured during the storm, which lifted the roof off their house and sent roof tiles, steel sheeting and other shrapnel flying 50 metres from the property.
“The whole thing lasted about ten seconds,” Ms Dinnison said.
“I was out in the yard, and I saw the wind and rain just change, just stop about 20 metres out. I thought to myself, ‘there’s something you don’t see too often’.”
Ms Dinnison said by the time she realised what was happening, the tornado had touched down directly above her.
“I was told that, when they touch down, they blow out a lot of their energy, and that just happened to be directly on our roof,” she said.
“It was just crazy. We could see bits of sheeting, tiles just flying around.”
Mr Dinnison, who had been in his workshop when the tornado struck, said he was lucky to be standing.
“I was closing the shade cloth over the shed, and when it hit it flung the whole curtain out – I was hanging on for dear life,” he said.
The tornado was powerful enough to not only lift the entire roof off the Dinnison’s house – sucking laundry hung outside into the house at the same time – but also to completely demolish the nearby horse stables, which has been left twisted around itself.
The Dinnison’s immediately rang emergency services, and Mandurah SES volunteers arrived shortly after.
“At that point, there was just stuff everywhere – bits of the shed were showing up in our neighbour’s backyards,” Mr Dinnison said.
The SES crew was able to cover the house, vehicles and other damaged items with tarps to protect them from the ongoing rain.
“The SES workers were just amazing. I had my jacket on, but they were up there, working on the roof. Some of them were soaked, but they kept going,” Mr Dinnison said.
“They were incredible. I don’t think the house would even be standing if it weren’t for them.”
The Dinnisons said their insurance company was currently assessing the damage, and are hoping to be able to move back in by Christmas.
In the mean time, they’ve been forced to live in a caravan on the property.
“We’re both pensioners, so we can’t really afford to stay in hotel rooms for months,” Mr Dinnison said.
“But we’re just lucky we’re alright, and the dogs. Something could’ve gone very wrong, so I think we can just consider ourselves lucky it didn’t.”
The Dinnisons would like to thank the Mandurah SES volunteers for the help they provided.
