Defiant Keith takes the bus to safety

THE annex was stripped and his belongings saturated by torrential rain, but 91- year- old Keith Hill has survived the wrath of Cyclone Debbie from inside his converted bus.

The Bowen local, who is affectionately known as “Blue” around town, emerged yesterday morning from his home battered but not shaken.

In his underwear and a shirt when the Townsville Bulletin arrived, Mr Hill opened the door to see the damage caused by the Category 4 storm.

“I haven’t been outside yet,” he told the Bulletin. “I don’t know how it’s been.”

Mr Hill was lucky to survive after a tree beside his converted bus snapped in half but fell away from his home. His Christmas tree, which he never dismantles, was still standing with decorations attached.

Mr Hill had managed to keep his door shut throughout Tuesday night by tangling electrical cords from the inside.

“My daughter came to get me ( yesterday) morning but I didn’t want to go,” he said. “I’m independent.” Mr Hill said the wind during the cyclone was “terrible”. “I wasn’t scared,” he said. “I slept on my couch – I was awake most of the night. But I’m alive, I’m still breathing.

“I have some pains in my chest, every now and again. I get them, but I have tablets.”

Mr Hill said he was going to wait inside his caravan until the storms still ravaging Bowen yesterday had passed.

“I’m not hungry, I’ve got enough food,” he said.

Wangaratta Caravan Park manager Christine Crook said Mr Hill was a stubborn man.

“He’s a bit of a character,” she said. “He wouldn’t move – the police came, the SES came and we tried three times.

“That’s his home though; he’s lived there all his life.”