Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
Marg????
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 243868" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>People are moving back into some areas. Other areas still havne't been cleared by police and emergency services. Some idiots are still lighting fires - police have a description of a car and two men in the Beechworth area. They will get them. Beechworth is quite a big town for a country area. It's bigger than our village. A lot of the places that have gone, are a lot bigger than our village. Some are smaller.</p><p></p><p>Some towns are still blocked by crime scene tape and they know there are bodies in there. Eighty people are still missing. It is hoped that perhaps they are in their own (intact) homes or perhaps roughing it in the ashes, but unable to get in touch due to power and phoones being out. There are some amazing survival stories - one girl jumped down a wombat hole and stayed there safely while the fire went over the top. There have been cases of parents believing the children were dead, and vice versa, but after days and days, finally meeting up at evac centres. The careful registers being kept of who is where, and their movements, is helping people find one another. Listening to kids talking about how many classmates they've lost, or relatives... sad.</p><p></p><p>The winds are due to shift in the next day or so. The continuing existence of firebugs is a worry (understatement!) but with the amount of police on the ground, plus the degree of careful reporting of people's movements, it will be difficultfor firebugs to get away with it. it's sheer bravado and arrogance that leads them to do it - defiance and "catch me if you can" attitudes, plus I've seen it before - when there is a fire emergency and it begins to get under control, these people want another adrenalin rush and try to push things back to the previous level of organised panic. Sometimes it is people in authority doing this - we've often had firebugs in the fire services. That is actually the first place the police look.</p><p></p><p>There has also been some "reports of attempted looting" which tells me that the police caught some people in areas they had no right to be, with possessions they couldn't explain (possibly caught in the act). From what we've seen, there really isn't much worth looting.</p><p></p><p>Current death toll - 181, with 80 still missing. Of the people in hospital, some will die. We already know this. Five thousand people are homeless. </p><p></p><p>A vast amount of support is flooding in. The first wave of support was clothing and food. Now it's money, to buy more specific items. The army has taken on housing and is looking after people, putting them up in tents and ensuring that they have bedding as well. There are scammers trying to cash in on this, but people are being warned to stick to the big name groups (such as Red Cross) and double-check the group is genuine by calling back or checking the website. </p><p></p><p>From husband's & my experience, the people who pitch in and help are often very close to the disaster themselves. When we were billetted, we went home after three days and a day later, the wind turned and went for the homes of places where we had been previously housed. And we couldn't return the favour because the roads in and out of our area were still restricted.</p><p></p><p>It will take months to get people housed and resettled. Months to identify a lot of the bodies - they're having to use DNA in a lot of cases. Months to sift through the evidence. Each surviving family has been assigned a caseworker to help them plan where to go now. One suggestion is that all rebuilt houses will require a fire shelter on site. I don't know how serious that one will be.</p><p></p><p>For now, fingers are crossed that the expected return to hot weather and high winds will not make things bad again. There is still a lot of Victoria left unburned. Sixty fires are still burning, they're just too big to put out. Some big firefronts are possibly going to join up. Where the fires have already gone through, the place is still dangerous because of falling trees. I remember after '94 fires, about six months later, there was a strong winter wind one day while people were driving through the bush road to go to work, and a branch blew off a tree through a car window and impaled a driver. He lived long enough to get the car stopped and thereby saved his passenger and other drivers on the road. There is still so much than can go wrong.</p><p></p><p>This is all the part of Australia where difficult child 1 & daughter in law went for their honeymoon. They were further out in the country; these fires are moving around the outskirts of Melbourne now, round to the east. The wind is picking up from the south and the firies are all planning with weather conditions and fire fronts in mind, putting in firebreaks to the best of their ability. A lot of the area is inaccessible and they have to get rest some time. Some areas can only get the choppers in.</p><p></p><p>We'll get there, but it's going to take time.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 243868, member: 1991"] People are moving back into some areas. Other areas still havne't been cleared by police and emergency services. Some idiots are still lighting fires - police have a description of a car and two men in the Beechworth area. They will get them. Beechworth is quite a big town for a country area. It's bigger than our village. A lot of the places that have gone, are a lot bigger than our village. Some are smaller. Some towns are still blocked by crime scene tape and they know there are bodies in there. Eighty people are still missing. It is hoped that perhaps they are in their own (intact) homes or perhaps roughing it in the ashes, but unable to get in touch due to power and phoones being out. There are some amazing survival stories - one girl jumped down a wombat hole and stayed there safely while the fire went over the top. There have been cases of parents believing the children were dead, and vice versa, but after days and days, finally meeting up at evac centres. The careful registers being kept of who is where, and their movements, is helping people find one another. Listening to kids talking about how many classmates they've lost, or relatives... sad. The winds are due to shift in the next day or so. The continuing existence of firebugs is a worry (understatement!) but with the amount of police on the ground, plus the degree of careful reporting of people's movements, it will be difficultfor firebugs to get away with it. it's sheer bravado and arrogance that leads them to do it - defiance and "catch me if you can" attitudes, plus I've seen it before - when there is a fire emergency and it begins to get under control, these people want another adrenalin rush and try to push things back to the previous level of organised panic. Sometimes it is people in authority doing this - we've often had firebugs in the fire services. That is actually the first place the police look. There has also been some "reports of attempted looting" which tells me that the police caught some people in areas they had no right to be, with possessions they couldn't explain (possibly caught in the act). From what we've seen, there really isn't much worth looting. Current death toll - 181, with 80 still missing. Of the people in hospital, some will die. We already know this. Five thousand people are homeless. A vast amount of support is flooding in. The first wave of support was clothing and food. Now it's money, to buy more specific items. The army has taken on housing and is looking after people, putting them up in tents and ensuring that they have bedding as well. There are scammers trying to cash in on this, but people are being warned to stick to the big name groups (such as Red Cross) and double-check the group is genuine by calling back or checking the website. From husband's & my experience, the people who pitch in and help are often very close to the disaster themselves. When we were billetted, we went home after three days and a day later, the wind turned and went for the homes of places where we had been previously housed. And we couldn't return the favour because the roads in and out of our area were still restricted. It will take months to get people housed and resettled. Months to identify a lot of the bodies - they're having to use DNA in a lot of cases. Months to sift through the evidence. Each surviving family has been assigned a caseworker to help them plan where to go now. One suggestion is that all rebuilt houses will require a fire shelter on site. I don't know how serious that one will be. For now, fingers are crossed that the expected return to hot weather and high winds will not make things bad again. There is still a lot of Victoria left unburned. Sixty fires are still burning, they're just too big to put out. Some big firefronts are possibly going to join up. Where the fires have already gone through, the place is still dangerous because of falling trees. I remember after '94 fires, about six months later, there was a strong winter wind one day while people were driving through the bush road to go to work, and a branch blew off a tree through a car window and impaled a driver. He lived long enough to get the car stopped and thereby saved his passenger and other drivers on the road. There is still so much than can go wrong. This is all the part of Australia where difficult child 1 & daughter in law went for their honeymoon. They were further out in the country; these fires are moving around the outskirts of Melbourne now, round to the east. The wind is picking up from the south and the firies are all planning with weather conditions and fire fronts in mind, putting in firebreaks to the best of their ability. A lot of the area is inaccessible and they have to get rest some time. Some areas can only get the choppers in. We'll get there, but it's going to take time. Marg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
Marg????
Top