Categories: life-in-general
Date: 07 February 2009 22:18:42
Australia has had Ash Wednesday and Black Tuesday, I don't know what they will call yesterday and last night in Victoria. Yesterday when we went to bed there were bushfires burning but only one fatality reported - this morning we woke up to 11 active bushfires, a number of those are enormous and utterly out of control, 25 confirmed dead (including 6 in one car alone) and at least one ENTIRE town has been burnt to the ground. The temperature hit 46.4deg C in Melbourne and was hotter outside the cities.
The fires are still burning, a lot were deliberately lit, the others started by lightning, there is no rain forecast in the coming week. The radar ... www.bom.gov.au ... is showing heavy 'rain' over VIctoria - it's actually smoke that is so thick that it's registering on the radar as rain storms - there is no rain.
They are in for slightly cooler weather today but the 100km+ winds are still happening and it's too dangerous for people to go into areas where the fire has passed in case the wind changes and it return. So lots of people who got out don't know if they have a house, if their neighbours got out, if family got out. 6 houses in a street in Narewarren (spell?) went in minutes as a grassfire got hit by the winds, changed direction, and hit them with a firestorm. One of those family's has been left with a burnt photo album, a box with a family heirloom bangle, and the clothes they stood up in - but count themselves lucky 'cause they all survived.
Prayers to them all and for them all.
And for NSW which is supposed to be experiencing almost as high temperatures today, with every single fire unit on standby.