Fires update
Well it was our hottest night yet here. We haven't had the weather change that caused all the trouble in the rest of our State. 24oC overnight and expected 41oC. I don't mind so much, I guess you slowly get used to it. My Back to Basics post was written before the fires, and put on the timer.
The town I am concerned about today is Alexandra. I know a lot of these towns because I lived near Myrtleford and Beechworth most of my life, and in 2003 lived near Melbourne, and went to Kinglake often, lived in Flowerdale and went every week to Alexandra. The unconfirmed deaths in our State are very high.
Please pray for Melbourne itself apparently the newspaper has called it a Horror Day. Still there are so many country people who must be so scared and grieving this morning.
We were without radio or TV for twelve hours. We were worried about not having batteries for our radio and plan on buying one that doesn't use batteries, but our transmitter wasn't transmitting. Thankfully nothing happened here last night. I hope our weather change is relatively straight forward. My husband says we may not get one, which is probably a good thing.
Not sure if my daughter will still be able to go away for her trip to the beach. Today we are making our jam despite the heat. It is more pleasant to do things in the morning. I probably will be sick of the heat again by the afternoon.
The town I am concerned about today is Alexandra. I know a lot of these towns because I lived near Myrtleford and Beechworth most of my life, and in 2003 lived near Melbourne, and went to Kinglake often, lived in Flowerdale and went every week to Alexandra. The unconfirmed deaths in our State are very high.
Please pray for Melbourne itself apparently the newspaper has called it a Horror Day. Still there are so many country people who must be so scared and grieving this morning.
We were without radio or TV for twelve hours. We were worried about not having batteries for our radio and plan on buying one that doesn't use batteries, but our transmitter wasn't transmitting. Thankfully nothing happened here last night. I hope our weather change is relatively straight forward. My husband says we may not get one, which is probably a good thing.
Not sure if my daughter will still be able to go away for her trip to the beach. Today we are making our jam despite the heat. It is more pleasant to do things in the morning. I probably will be sick of the heat again by the afternoon.
Comments
It certainly is a grim time for Victoria at the moment. So many lives lost, so tragic.
Our area had the Ash Wednesday Bushfires in 1983 and 16 people in our district were killed, including a woman and her four young children. They were fleeing their property but only made it down their drive in the car.
I never want to have to see any of that carnage again in my lifetime.
Today we have a cool sea breeze - I wish it for all those suffering the heat. Stay safe,
- Joolz
Well we all know and are still learning about the outcome of yesterdays terrible weather.
All that area is in dire straits - I just cana't take in that the whole town of Marysville has been destroyed.
More and more is coming to light (sorry about that) as the day goes on.
Take care
Cathy
I hope you are safe where you live.
We didn't hear about the devastion until the midnight news on the radio as we had been in Adelaide.
It was 48C when we left home for Adelaide yesterday afternoon. Not ideal driving weather. We struck the change an hour down the road and the wind was incredible, vision was restricted because of raised dust.
I feel for everyone involved, we have friends in Romsey near Kilmore. We rang them this morning and they were okay but can see the fire.
We may get hot here but we have no bushland around us to have the worry of bushfires. We do have Flinders Ranges nearby that occasionally get fires.
Please stay safe,
Tania
In some ways I think it is actually better to live in a bushfire area. At least I have access to an early warning phone tree, which had an emergency message activation yesterday, and well everyone in the area is aware that we are only one disturbed person away from a crisis. We all take property clearing seriously .. it isn't going to save us if it all goes bad but the reality is nothing will.
I have a friend in Beechworth who was home alone last night (her hubby is an ambo and has been gone more than he's been home) and she was so stressed and scared last night that when she phoned me, all I got was gibberish. She was even worse this morning, but at least things are calming down in the immediate Beechworth area - and hubby is now home on a fatigue break.
I just can't get my mind wrapped around the devastation...
Thank you Joyce, I appreciate it.
belinda I appreciate your thoughts, thanks.
I'm not sure if Kinglake and Flowerdale get tinderbox dry, but they have a lot of undergrowth would you call it, Kinglake grows things like magic.