WA: Students tell of "miracle" escape from flat after storm

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-1999
WA: Students tell of "miracle" escape from flat after storm

By Andrea Mayes

FREMANTLE, WA, Aug 25 AAP - In the middle of her morning shower, Rahini Telang looked up
and saw her bathroom ceiling was gone - ripped off by a sudden and vicious storm.

"The wind was getting stronger and I heard this big whoosh noise," the 23-year-old Curtin
University student said today.

"I suddenly realised the roof was gone and all this wind and rain was coming in."

The mini-cyclone, known to locals as a "cockeyed bob", struck East Fremantle without
warning just after 6am.

It lasted only a minute, but unroofed four houses, Ms Telang's eight-storey apartment block
and tore up some trees.

Emergency services arrived to find the apartment block's roof a mass of twisted metal and
collapsed walls.

Three people on the wrecked top storey were trapped by the debris, including Ms Telang, a
23-year-old Canadian, and her flatmate, physiotherapy student Sarah Fletcher.

They escaped unhurt but their elderly neighbour was later taken to hospital with minor
injuries.

Ms Fletcher was trapped by falling debris in her bedroom.

"I heard the wind get louder and louder so I put the blankets over my head and then the
whole ceiling fell down on top of me," Ms Fletcher said, still dressed in her pyjamas.

"It was really, really frightening, I've never been so scared."

Ms Fletcher crawled through debris to reach Ms Taleng and together they climbed out of a
window and into the flat of their elderly neighbour, who was also trapped.

It took 30 minutes before emergency services could rescue them.

""It really is a miracle," said a shaken but unharmed Ms Fletcher.

"I said a prayer because I don't know how we could possibly be alright after that."

Police said all residents of the 66-unit apartment block had been evacuated and structural
engineers would assess the building.

"Nobody was seriously injured, we're very lucky that it was only the roof that was pulled
back," said a police spokesman.

East Fremantle Mayor Andrew Smith said the "cockeyed bob" storm woke thousands of residents
as it swept along a narrow path for about two to three kilometres.

"It was very intense. It is pretty scary when it happens," he said.

AAP alm/km/sp/dmc/br

KEYWORD: APARTMENT NIGHTLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.