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.

Comments

Joolz said…
Hello Linda

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
Cathy said…
Hello Linda

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
Linda said…
Neither can I, I found out over 1/2 hour ago. It is a place that means so much to people.
Scrappy quilter said…
I've been watching this on the news. Terrible situation.
Tania said…
Hi Linda,

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
Linda said…
The radio was saying that where we live in one of the three worst places in the world for bushfires and none of us can say we are safe. I got worried about that, so was trying to work out where the boundary was. Interesting that you don't get them. We have a lot of bushfire talk each year.
I hope you continue to be safe. It has been a tragic loss of life, Victoria is in our thoughts and prayers.
belinda said…
Absolutely on the none of us can say we are safe... No one expected suburban Narre Warren to start buring down.

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.
Tatersmama said…
It's just been a horrible weekend and the news reports are just heartbreaking.
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...
Catherine said…
Hope you are ok Linda, thinking of you from the cold north of Europe while we freeze as you have such awful devastation there. I saw on the recent news that the death toll is almost 100 and two towns have been practically destroyed. It is an awful tragedy. I saw bush fires in Africa where they often went out of control but nothing like this, I guess with temps so high the place is like a tinderbox.
Joyce said…
I am so sorry to hear of this trouble, Linda. I do pray that there will be relief from the fires, and that your family will be safe.
Linda said…
I hope your friend is feeling a little better Tatersmama, and will continue to feel better and have less to worry about. I feel for her.

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.
Hill upon Hill said…
Oh, you have been in my thoughts and now poor Beechworth. What mourning. Praying for cool, refreshing rain and comfort for those that are so hurt.
Linda said…
Thank you so much. There has been a little rain here this morning and there is smoke.

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