Mothers Horror walk in storm with Baby

'I was crying but she was laughing'
By JUSTIN VALLEJO and MATT SUN
March 24, 2005
Daily Telegraph see pictures here
A RELIEVED mother yesterday told of her panic as she tried to hang on to her baby's pram as 102km/h winds tried to tear it from her grasp.

Louize O'Keefe's nine-month-old daughter was in the pram as the wind lifted it from the pavement and sent it tumbling down the Newcastle street – and all the mother could do was try and hold on.
While little Bradey-Ann lay smiling and laughing in her overturned pram, two firefighters came to her aid.
"The wind came straight up under the pram and just lifted it. It flipped about four or five times, then the pram hit the ground and so did I," Louize, from Gosford, said yesterday.
"I was freaking out and crying but she was OK. She was smiling and laughing and clapping. She then waved to everyone."
Louize and Bradey-Ann were walking along Newcastle's King St at about 10.30am when the gale-force gust struck.
Emergency services were in the street attending to other wind damage when Bradey-Ann's pram was blown away.
"I thought I would have to take her to hospital but she is completely fine, she didn't even shed a tear," Louize said.
"We were just lucky she was strapped in and the emergency people were nearby.
"I don't know who they were or where they came from but I am just so grateful they were there because she is my first daughter and I love her so much."
The heroes of the moment were Newcastle firefighters Dean Ball and Steve Cox.
Mr Ball said the wind in the street became so bad they had to close it off to pedestrians, because the buildings had created a wind tunnel.
"The wind took her and the pram and blew them both over on the road," he said.
"The bub was still in the pram but they are okay and that is the main thing.
"We just happened to be there and whatever needs to be done that's what we do and we are trained for. So we were happy to help out."
The winds also caused 20,000 homes in Sydney and on the Central Coast to lose power at various times from Monday night to yesterday morning.
The State Emergency Service said areas east of the Pacific Highway in Sydney, Gosford and the lower Hunter were the hardest hit areas.
More than 280 SES volunteers were attending to 924 requests for assistance last night.
Rain continued to bucket down across Sydney and Newcastle yesterday, with Chatswood receiving 85 mm and Turramurra 82 mm in the 24 hours leading to 9am yesterday.
But the downpours were not enough to top up dam levels.
Yesterday's rain was only enough to delay Sydney's dams reaching their lowest levels.
A spokesman for Environment Minister Bob Debus said water capacity is sitting at 42.2 per cent – just 0.3 per cent above the historic 41.9 per cent low set in the early 1980's.
"The rain is welcome but we need seven days of heavy rain with 40mm a day for us to get back up to acceptable dam levels," the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Sydney was littered, literally, with evidence of the wet and wild weather.
While wind speeds did not reach extreme levels during yesterday's daylight hours, they were still strong enough to destroy hundreds of umbrellas across the city.
Last night Sydney was littered with broken umbrellas, dumped in bins after they were torn to shreds by the gusts.
The big wet caused havoc on the roads. Problems began early with traffic lights blacking out at a number of busy intersections throughout the day.
Westbound lanes of traffic on New Canterbury Rd were blocked when a tree fell across the road at the intersection of Toothill St in Lewisham.
Heavy traffic flows in the M5 East tunnel were exacerbated when a car break down closed on lane about 2.15pm.

100 km/hr appx 60 mph.