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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 243070" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>We've heard from difficult child 1 & daughter in law - they dropped in with their friends at 1.30, just as we'd given up on them and I'd started to get lunch. I had to quickly find enough food for them as well.</p><p></p><p>The house is closed up with curtains drawn - ideal for watching movies. I've left husband & mother in law watching another movie while I got online to check the nes and talk to you guys.</p><p></p><p>Thanks for worryintg but we are OK. The main danger we will be in, is if some idiot lights a fire in our area. And because '94 was so bad, it can't be that bad again for many years. It has grown back a lot, but there are still fewer large trees. ALso, the authorities have been working hard to keep road edges cleared with no overhang, so every road is also a firebreak of sorts. I miss the shady driving, but we are safer.</p><p></p><p>The areas being burned - it's rural, not bushland. Country towns and farmland on the outskirts of larger cities. It's all inhabited, not as empty as it looks.</p><p></p><p>The last news I can get says that the army have now been called in to help, I suspect our local brigades are going to be heading down south once tonight's cool change comes through with no outbreak here. The fires are in East Gippsland, a lot of native bushland there with plenty of farms. Aussie farms leave as much natural vegetation as they can, because if they don't then they lose topsoil in the winds and rain, and livestock die out from lack of shade. But this isn't full-on farmland, it's more like outlying towns beyond the capital city of Melbourne. I have a link I'll include at the end, from the BBC. It's got a map to show you how close to Melbourne the worst of this is. The trouble is - when you ahve fires started by firebugs, you're most likely to get them close to a capital city because firebugs don't inconvenience themselves to go too far away. A crisis is much more fun for firebugs, if they can threaten more lives.</p><p></p><p>New flash - at least 35 killed, another 8 critical, death toll expected to rise. Marysville & Kinglake reported as being "almost wiped out".</p><p></p><p>The TV didn't say, but in fact Marysville residents are OK, they all got to safety. Aussies are generally really good at emergency procedures and evacuation, in a crisis everything generally works smoothly. The trouble here is, we've had such unseasonally hot weather (record-breaking) plus long-term lack of rain (much worse than usual) plus firebugs (who consensus says should be charged with murder) that the catastrophe is as bad as it is, despite the best we can do (which generally is formidable).</p><p></p><p>The Ash Wednesday fires were so bad, because there was little preparation and people didn't have good emergency procedures in place. This time we do - and it's still this bad.</p><p></p><p>The death toll is expected to rise, because they still haven't got to check out the damage in some of the worst-hit areas. They know houses have gone but have no word of where the people have gone. They can see cars burning, they don't know if there were any people in them but are afraid there were.</p><p></p><p>Our safety rules are - make up your mind early if you're going to stay with your home & fight, or leave. If you leave, do it early and not at the last minute. If you stay, be well-prepared. Cooperate with authorities. But this time - people didn't always have time to make the decision, once they realised they were in danger.</p><p></p><p>They just revised the death toll to 36. They think we could come close to or even pass the Ash Wednesday death toll (75), but as I said - that was higher than it should have been, this one is really bad. Kinglake is apparently a mess, 12 people killed there alone. We'll know more in the 6 pm news.</p><p></p><p>And here is a detailed link from the ABC, I'm going to post this then go through the link in more detail myself. For us, ABC is probably the best authority - it's like the Aussie version of the BBC.</p><p></p><p>Thanks for caring, guys. We appreciate it.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 243070, member: 1991"] We've heard from difficult child 1 & daughter in law - they dropped in with their friends at 1.30, just as we'd given up on them and I'd started to get lunch. I had to quickly find enough food for them as well. The house is closed up with curtains drawn - ideal for watching movies. I've left husband & mother in law watching another movie while I got online to check the nes and talk to you guys. Thanks for worryintg but we are OK. The main danger we will be in, is if some idiot lights a fire in our area. And because '94 was so bad, it can't be that bad again for many years. It has grown back a lot, but there are still fewer large trees. ALso, the authorities have been working hard to keep road edges cleared with no overhang, so every road is also a firebreak of sorts. I miss the shady driving, but we are safer. The areas being burned - it's rural, not bushland. Country towns and farmland on the outskirts of larger cities. It's all inhabited, not as empty as it looks. The last news I can get says that the army have now been called in to help, I suspect our local brigades are going to be heading down south once tonight's cool change comes through with no outbreak here. The fires are in East Gippsland, a lot of native bushland there with plenty of farms. Aussie farms leave as much natural vegetation as they can, because if they don't then they lose topsoil in the winds and rain, and livestock die out from lack of shade. But this isn't full-on farmland, it's more like outlying towns beyond the capital city of Melbourne. I have a link I'll include at the end, from the BBC. It's got a map to show you how close to Melbourne the worst of this is. The trouble is - when you ahve fires started by firebugs, you're most likely to get them close to a capital city because firebugs don't inconvenience themselves to go too far away. A crisis is much more fun for firebugs, if they can threaten more lives. New flash - at least 35 killed, another 8 critical, death toll expected to rise. Marysville & Kinglake reported as being "almost wiped out". The TV didn't say, but in fact Marysville residents are OK, they all got to safety. Aussies are generally really good at emergency procedures and evacuation, in a crisis everything generally works smoothly. The trouble here is, we've had such unseasonally hot weather (record-breaking) plus long-term lack of rain (much worse than usual) plus firebugs (who consensus says should be charged with murder) that the catastrophe is as bad as it is, despite the best we can do (which generally is formidable). The Ash Wednesday fires were so bad, because there was little preparation and people didn't have good emergency procedures in place. This time we do - and it's still this bad. The death toll is expected to rise, because they still haven't got to check out the damage in some of the worst-hit areas. They know houses have gone but have no word of where the people have gone. They can see cars burning, they don't know if there were any people in them but are afraid there were. Our safety rules are - make up your mind early if you're going to stay with your home & fight, or leave. If you leave, do it early and not at the last minute. If you stay, be well-prepared. Cooperate with authorities. But this time - people didn't always have time to make the decision, once they realised they were in danger. They just revised the death toll to 36. They think we could come close to or even pass the Ash Wednesday death toll (75), but as I said - that was higher than it should have been, this one is really bad. Kinglake is apparently a mess, 12 people killed there alone. We'll know more in the 6 pm news. And here is a detailed link from the ABC, I'm going to post this then go through the link in more detail myself. For us, ABC is probably the best authority - it's like the Aussie version of the BBC. Thanks for caring, guys. We appreciate it. Marg [/QUOTE]
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