OPINION: Nothing to do but wait as Veronica rattles the Pilbara

Veronica is dedicated and she is slow. Slow is one of the deadliest things a cyclone can be.

Usually they have the decency to hit during the night with all they have and scamper off inland before daylight like shy fruit bats.

I’ve lived through quite a few cyclones as kid living in Townsville. This one’s just so much slower than any I’ve met before.

Veronica started Saturday evening and since then has only got more extreme.

My night was not too bad in the end, I slept ok considering the doors on one side of my house were rattling like someone was trying to get in all night.

In fact, what woke me up most was family ringing in the morning to check I was still well and good.

But then, I’ve been lucky – no loss of water, power, internet, phone coverage, nothing. I’m sat with video games and am trying to stay relaxed about the whole thing.

I am in a new part of South Hedland, not within the storm surge area, in a brick house less than a decade old with a metal roof and not pets or children to entertain or worry about.

I imagine if you’re new to cyclones, have kids or are in the path of the surge, you’d be really very concerned.

And the longer Veronica lasts the more worrying it becomes; I wonder about what could be happening beyond my street and I worry when a new door which was silent last night starts rattling.

I can say this with certainty, as of midday Sunday, she is not stopping. We just have to sit it out, there’s not much you can do about it now.

Daneka Hill is a journalist for the North West Telegraph