I'll update here, too.
Every national park in the state has been closed today, campers advised to leave. Where we live, is in an extreme danger area. However, there is a clear demarcation between the village and the bush (= forest). Aussie forest is highly flammable. I remember when we were evacuating from the last day like this in 1994, I glanced to the end of the street and I could see fireballs in the air, eucalyptus oil exploding in the flames.
The village is surrounded by bushland on three sides and by the sea on the fourth. Our house is non-flammable although surrounded by trees. Our property does not border the bushland but is close to it. We have good clear vision all around, we can see it coming. Our biggest risk is a fire starting next to the village - not a lot of warning then. But we've lived here for 34 years and have never seen even one house burn down. I've seen a roof damaged, a caravan gone, a couple of garden sheds gone, over a number of different fires.
You can monitor the fires from our NSW rural fire brigade service -
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au. You will see the extent of the danger, but also the extent of the organisation working on it.
My biggest concern is the heat today - the forecast is for 43C. The rough rule of thumb to convert to degrees F is double it and add 30, but when you get up to these big numbers it under-estimates. My calculator says it will be around 110F in the heart of Sydney, at our place, at a lot of places along the coast (where it is normally cooler) from Wollongong to Newcastle.
The whole state is on fire alert, big time. We have a range of fire rating warnings. Illawarra is listed at Catastrophic - at that level, they say, we have to either leave now, before there is danger, and get to a point of safety, or stay put if we have a fire safety plan in place. Bomb shelters, that sort of thing. Jumping in the rainwater tank is not recommended - in the Victorian fires, people did that and cooked. Our rainwater tank is plastic and sealed. The fire brigade know about it, they will come and pump it out (along with the swimming pool next door) if they need the water. Our area I thought was also Catastrophic but at the moment I think is just Extreme (the next level down, used to be the top level).
The town here sometimes runs out of water on hot summery days. Days like today, people get up and hose their roofs, fill gutters with water, that sort of thing. But only the houses on the edge should do this. Last time, I remember seeing people hosing their roofs in the middle of the town where they had minimal danger. I saw a roof dry at one end where it had just been hosed, while the bloke hosed the other end. It was bone dry in a few minutes - a waste of water. I went home (up the top of the hill) to find our water supply down to a trickle. I used the last of it to fill the bathtub. We didn't get water back at our place for a week. We had to use the beach shower or rinse ourselves from a bucket, after a swim. Gravity works! They had plenty of water down the bottom of the hill, just not enough pressure to get up to us.
That was then. Today, we have prepared a lot more. We also have the internet now to keep us informed. We have filled drums of water for drinking (because the tap water rises to undrinkable levels). I've just closed up the house, closing doors, windows and curtains. The fans are on (ceiling fans). We have no air conditioning. I do have one awning yet to pull down, but that window is curtained inside. Bowls of water outside for the birds. I'll got and put a bowl of food out there for the birds too - we mix their food with water, it's like a watery porridge for them. Keeping the birds close to town will probably help them, there is no water in the bush at the moment.
The outside temperature went up suddenly an hour or so after sunrise, then stopped. It's just started moving again. Still pleasant here, 26C. I'm about to go out and check things out, possibly drop in on mother in law to see if she's got the air conditioning on and doors/windows shut. Trouble is, sis-in-law is currently staying there and likes to leave doors open. She turns down the air con temp to compensate, but this one doesn't work that way and she won't listen. We put extra water in the bathroom for them. If I go down there and find things not as they should be, I will have to not say anything. I had to go home early last night because sis-in-law was being unpleasant again. mother in law is not well, I do feel I need to monitor. But I'm reluctant to go near.
husband went to work. He's expecting a shipment of flammables to come in today. great...
if we have a fire in the forest, husband won't be allowed to drive home. But there can be an advantage - because under those conditions we may have to get out. The boat will be running, plus the Dunkirk method comes into play (flotillas of private craft sail in to rescue people). If we have to get out, then we'll have husband's car on the mainland. If he can come home, then he'll be able to catch the boat to work next morning and pick up his car on the other side to drive the rest of the way.
I remember in 1994, they wouldn't let locals home on the boat (including not letting the local doctor back, and we needed him). Some blokes drove to the narrowest part of the bay, parked their cars, and swam home. The papers made a big fuss about shark-infested waters, totally ignoring the fire storm the blokes went home to.
We have some other anecdotes from past fires. if we come through this alright, I'll share them with you. They can seem a bit flippant is we have serious property damage or loss of life in the state today.
Stop press - 38C at Bega down south, not sure what time because the phone line from the official (talking to the radio) dropped out.
They're playing Beach Boys covers on the radio to help us feel cool... we're getting updates, but the focus is on keeping things calm, but practical. No dramas.
We're a pragmatic people. Shirt sleeves rolled up, except when fighting fires!
Marg