posted
South Australia is getting hit by a fire storm! 50c heat. Add 100kph winds and you get a hurricane situation except its fire balls not rain.
Entire towns disappear in seconds!
Worst fire in Australian history.
Official death total already over 100 and that's only the ones they found so far. Expect to add a zero to end that figure when they find the rest! One fire fighter lost his wife and four kids before he got to the fire station on an emergency call out!
NSW is under same threat ,,, only 40C+ but fires under control. Lot of them "fire bugs" lit. Got one charged with murder!
My place in Southern Queensland is nice low 30s dry heat.
Northern Queensland is FLOODED and expecting more rain!
Go figure?
[ February 08, 2009, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: Jon Butterworth ]
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ever seen an old man cry watching news tonight.
Hour long special on biggest natural disaster in Australian history!
Stories of loss and miricles of survival.
More to come too!
Body count into hundreds already and that not countng the ones they haven't found yet and ones who won't make thru ICU.
Looks like a napalm strike in some places.
Cars on roads burnt to a crisp trying to outrun it!
You have to understand it is not just the heat and wind factor. You can light a green gum leaf with a match it has so much oil in it! Add fact it a very hot long burning hardwood. I use it in my wood stove and put steel ash bucket out in yard for days before emptying.
"Gubbermentt to the rescue" with aid that is LESS than they gave in aid to homeless in some other countries last month. Less than Red Cross here has got in personal donations money and aid in last 24 hours!
posted
This is an e-mail I got yesterday from some friends in Melbourne:
Thanks Sonny. All I can say is this is by far the worst thing we have ever encountered here in victoria. The worst disaster in Australian history. The community close to St Andrews has possibly been one of the worst hit. Over 15 people dead and over 500 homes in just that area, burnt to the ground.
The death toll keeps rising with each new day, as crews make it in to areas that have been completely cut off. It currently stands at 110 lives lost.
Quaint little tourist destinations are gone. Yep, all gone. We simply cannot comprehend how cruel this has been. The warnings were there last week, I thought the media were maybe being a little sensationalist, but it has now turned out to have been far worse that the worst nightmare. Australia woke to the news that one of our oldest, most respected newspaper anchormen, who really was loved b the country, perished in his home with his wife over the weekend. All of us will be finding out about people we know who have lost everything.
Today I am busy organizing a huge benefit. It's all Geoff and I can do (on top of donations) to feel in someway useful.
Thank you for your kind thoughts. Michelle
Australia, we're praying for you.......
-------------------- www.signcreations.net Sonny Franks Lilburn, GA 770-923-9933 Posts: 4117 | From: Lilburn, GA USA | Registered: Feb 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
The clouds over New Zealand are tinted sepia tone with the smoke coming from the fires. It's quite surreal to see the light change. Its terrible to even think or comprehend a situation like the one currently playing out in Oz.
We kiwis may give aussies heck but at the end of the day we only rib each other cos we're so alike.
My heart goes out to all those affected by the fires
-------------------- Anne McDonald 17 Karnak Crescent Russley Christchurch 8042 New Zealand
"I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure" Posts: 877 | From: Christchurch | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
We are experiencing some of the worst wildfires on record this week.
Fires have ravaged communities across the state of Victoria.
You may read of the town of Marysville being razed to the ground.
It was a beautiful place in the hills and one which I visited many times to perform at the historic Homestead Inn. That venue is, in all likelihood, gone.
You may have also read of the devastation wrought on Kinglake. This township is only a few miles from our beloved St Andrews pub and we fear very much for our people there.
Many lives have been lost and hundreds of properties utterly destroyed. The danger has not yet past either.
Michelle, Jacob & I have been fortunate enough to live in a region un-touched by this disaster but we have been watching and listening in a state of shock.
We are very distressed and concerned for all those affected by the fires.
The work now being carried out by such organisations as the Red Cross and Salvation Army are providing much needed food, clothing and emergency shelter.
The best thing we can do though is to raise as much money as we can to allow these essential services to continue and help those people in burnt out areas make the first steps towards re-building their lives.
Michelle is at this moment organising a benefit gig for Tuesday 24th of this month where we will stage the biggest concert we can to assist with fund raising. We’ve done it before with enormous response for the victims of the Asian Tsunami and then again for Hurricane Katrina. These are tough times for all but even one Dollar, Pound or Euro from enough generous people around the world can make an enormous difference.
If you’d like to help you can make a secure online donation via the Victorian Red Cross here Victorian RED CROSS site:
Another 146 bodies, and they still can't get into towns and farms still burning to search homes burnt to gound!
Death toll could reach higher proportions per population than 911 in USA. Add the injured and those who will not survive in intensive care!
Roads are blocked off because of bodies and also fear of looters!
Police got one arsonist already! Member rural fire brigade! He faces murder charges!
Storys of survival are unreal .... one couple drove their 4x4 into their farm dam! Another survived in a refrigerated shipping container he was using as a farm meat freezer!
Just how hot it got was shown by the rivers of molten metal from shells of burnt out buses!
Picture Texas size state on fire in five areas!
Public support has been great for people who lost everything but the clothes they were wearing ... tonight $37M already and many planned fund raisers.
My contribution in signage for one of these fundraisers gets delivered freebee by lunchtime tomorrow plus a few dollars starters in the collection buckets.
[ February 10, 2009, 07:15 AM: Message edited by: Jon Butterworth ]
posted
Tragedies like this are hard to phanthom, never the less understand why they happen. The upside of them is it reminds us of the humanity that coexists with all the negativity that seems to be uplayed in this world. Thinking of you all down under.....
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
We're doing a 'thing' here with the local school, but a friend of mine in Brisbane has managed to get three semi-trailer loads of alfalfa/lucerne hay donated, and leaves on Saturday morning in convoy to take the stockfeed down to Victoria- about 1600 km each way.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged |
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic