Freo pulls together, remembers men who died 

FOUR days after a cockeyed bob tore up Clarke Street, Shirley and Noel Nicholas are yet to find their roof.

But what they have found is a heart-warming neighbourhood spirit in the face of disaster.

The pair awoke to a “roar like a train” Monday as the violent storm took seconds to all-but destroy their O’Connor home of 42 years.

No strings

Neighbours offered to move out of their untouched home and stay with friends, just so the Nicholases could have space for themselves to recover from their ordeal.

Another who’d just sold her house offered the couple as much cash as they’d need—no strings attached.

Herald readers took just hours to start pitching in: Ms Nicholas is staying with grand-daughter Ashlee, who’d mentioned to the Chook she was worried her nana would struggle with her low sofas.

Two hours after we put a call out on our Facebook page, Jessica Dickman from Mt Pleasant offered a reclining chair, which we delivered to an obviously relieved Ms Nicholas. The Facebook post attracted more than 6000 hits in no time.

Ms Nicholas needed a good sit-down, as the couple had just been told their home had suffered structural wall damage and it will be 12 months before they can move back in: “I had that feeling ‘boom!’ that it was coming in to me and then I felt myself get lifted up in bed,” Ms Nicholas recalled of the storm.

“Noel said to me ‘you just stay there’ and he went into the hall and I was just huddling under the covers.

“He was just in the hall and all I could hear was him saying ‘oh my god, oh my god’ and my daughter Kerry was also coming up the hall going ‘oh my god’ and I was wondering what was going on. Then Noel came in and said ‘the house is gone’ and he was soaking.”

Ms Nicholas says the whole thing was over in about 30 seconds. Neighbours are still debating whether the tornado was accompanied by a lightning strike, although Western Power thinks that was their power pole exploding when metal sheeting wrapped itself in wires.

Tragic

The subsequent blackout had tragic consequences: Beaconsfield mates Conor Murphy and Kyle Scolari, who both suffered muscular dystrophy, died in their sleep when their respirators failed.

The coroner will investigate why backup systems failed.

As widely reported elsewhere, Mr Murphy was a staffer with federal Labor MP Melissa Parke (and had featured in a Herald story last year).

“Despite this difficult life journey, I have managed to have a strong positive outlook, expressing a sense of ambition and drive for success which has led me down some incredible paths,” the young man told the Herald at the time.

Amber Jones, who lost half her roof and most of her front garden, was full of praise for emergency workers and Western Power, saying they’d been brilliant at dealing with a difficult situation. She’d also been bowled over by offers of help from neighbours and friends.

But down the road another owner—over the media exposure and not wanting to be named—said he was grumpy with SES workers for refusing to cover the hole in his roof with tarpaulins because his house was marked as having asbestos eaves.

He said no-one had let him know his home was on a blacklist so he’d sat there, twiddling his thumbs and watching rain falling through the huge hole when he could have been organising contractors.

Jane Humphrys from WA’s emergency services confirmed that if SES team leaders feel there is an asbestos risk, they won’t touch a house.

“The SES are volunteers and they don’t have training, and it could be that it’s going that extra step that they’re not prepared to take,” she told the Herald.

Ms Humphrys says the SES can ask the fire brigade for help, as they have full protective gear and training, but mostly it’s up to homeowners to sort out themselves.

She says the cock-eyed bob highlights how common asbestos still is, and says it’s an area the emergency services will probably look at.

by STEVE GRANT

• CAPTIONS: Clockwise from bottom left: Amber Jones lost her roof and front garden; this man was unhappy the SES wouldn’t tarp the hole in his roof due to asbestos in his eaves; Herald readers Jessica Dickman, Andrew Naprelac and their daughters Kiyomi and Molly gave up their recliner for Shirley Nicholas, pictured above with hubby Noel, daughter Kerry and grand-daughter Ashlee.