Fires in Australia

[edmayo]

With the terrible fires raging near Melbourn are any of our down under friends being affected?

[Jappy]

The scale of the devastation is immense, we all know,or know of, family & friends that have been directly affected.

I live 250 miles from Melbourne & yesterday could taste the smoke in the air. Saturday was weather-wise one of the most extreme days I've experienced, 115 degrees & 60 knots, the firefighters & residents had no chance of stopping those fires.

We at Typ901 are trying to do something practical to help some of those affected by raising some $$ to buy some tools to help them rebuild their lives.

For more information go to: http://www.typ901.org/showthread.php?t=2085
Donations can be made via Paypal to treasurer@typ901.org

[BOYER73S]

The fires are of a scale never seen before in this country.

I live reasonably close to the worst area and the smoke today has been very bad. Fires have been going for a week now but worst day was last Saturday with highest temp ever recorded and 100kph winds. Fires are not out by any stretch and may flare again if the weather is wrong.

Death toll may reach 300 plus but so hard to identify bodies.

The main fire front was moving at 100kph people had about 3 minutes warning or none at all in some parts

5 towns nearly wiped off the map completely

One member of the TYP 901 club has been affected by losing a property but happily I don't believe any club members have lost their lives in this armageddon.

[fg1227]

my prayers go out to all Austrialians

[Chuck Miller]

Sorry I was a little slow on the trigger on this... was getting a little more info.

The Registry usually does not allow for direct solicitation… but we feel THIS is an exception......

As you heard by now South-Eastern Australia, about an hour outside Melbourne, has been devastated by brush fires....... The tragedies are hitting very close to 'home' as a number of our friends, S Registry members, and message board contributors, come from this general region. Clyde Boyer (BOYER73S), Phil Lack (e72phil) and others have been affected. Our own Lisa Gregory/Jacobson (lisa spyder) and family might be the closest to the threat and have prepared to defend their property.

Our friends at the TYP901 Register have set up a very practical goal and means to contribute.
http://www.typ901.org/showthread.php?t=2085

Some of us have a positive history contributing to our own Red Cross; Australia has this set up as well…. I’m not sure of their payment system:
http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/servi...ppeal-2009.htm

Our hopes go out to our friends and all in harms way down under….

The Early 911S Registry

[lisa_spyder]

Firstly I like to say a big thankyou to everyone who has emailed to see we are OK...we are fine, the house is fine, the workshop is fine (cars are fine )...but our hearts are broken and our beautiful part of the world is scarred and beaten.

Last Saturday the conditions here were ripe for "the perfect firestorm". The experts are branding these fires as "superfires" and with very good reason. I have been through other bushfires - January 1983 and the infamous Ash Wednesday fires in the same year; but like everyone I have NEVER seen anything like what we witnessed last Saturday.

It is almost as though the weather conditions we had for several days before were building to this one massive "event"...locally we were duly warned on Friday of the very real risk of a fire jumping out of the Bunyip State Forest early Saturday. We all knew it could be bad - but NOTHING prepared us for this holocaust.

Early Saturday morning I checked the Country Fire Authority website. Customarily they report all incidents that have occurred within the last five hours in Victoria. At 7.00am there were 12 incidents...within a couple of hours the list was on its way to 100 entries and by lunchtime there were a couple of hundred entries at least and every time I refreshed the page there were more....so many in fact that the site was actually over an hour behind in updates .

We were going to a swap meet; but I refused to go as I knew the highway would be cut if the fire jumped out of the forest and I knew that our area was going to be ravaged if this happened. We are in a town of over 12,000 people surrounded by farming land (cleared pretty much)...and there we were enacting a fire plan and under ember attack by early afternoon. It was nearly 48 degrees celcius and less than 4% humidity and the northwesterly wind was gusting over 100kmh. At times I could have reached out to touch "Elvis" the water bombing superchopper as it was flying so low around us. We have lost nothing, had a few burnt bits land in the garden etc...but our school community have suffered with at least 10 families losing everything, several others losing farm sheds, hay, silage, fences, livestock etc...and then we know of casualities in the "next fire along" about 30kms from us...too many lives, too much sadness .

So many towns I know so well have ceased to exist; so many lives have been lost...I have no idea how we can truly rebuild these beautiful hamlets of such historic significance...but in true Aussie spirit it will be done; I am certain of that.

[Mark Morrissey]

I feel terrible about this. My thoughts are with you guys.
Mark

[RickS]

I too feel sickened reading about the devastation. My thoughts go out to our friends and theirs. May your lands and hearts heal.

[BOYER73S]

If it ever rains again it will.

We are in year 10 of drought in Victoria and January/Feb combined is the lowest rainfall total in history 1.5mm (25mm = 1 inch) so far