Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Victorian Bushfires

Last Saturday we lost power due to the extreme heat. It was the hottest day on Victorian record. I had been checking the CFA website all day as I have relatives and friends who live in rural areas. All was fine as we packed up and headed to my in laws for dinner. An hour and a half later we arrived home to discover that Kinglake, Marysville and Narbethong had been wiped off the map.

It's hard to describe exactly how I felt. Four days on and I still don't believe it. Saturday night though, was spent staring at the CFA website. They were filling in fires so quickly that only the suburb was listed. We still have friends we haven't heard from since Saturday. While our immediate family is safe, we are still in mourning over the loss of lives. We still can't believe that something of this magnitude could happen in our backyard.

I watch the world news and stare in disbelief as globally Kinglake is bought to the world, and the irony that this has happened because there is no longer anything there. I listen to the stories that friends tell me of people who escaped, their friends, their families, their colleagues. We hear of the stories of their friends, families and colleagues who didn't make it. It rips my heart from my soul to hear these unbelievable stories. These horror stories, these stories that will go down in history along with the worst natural disaster this country has ever seen.

As I write this, the winds are picking up again. By Friday they are expecting the fires to break containment lines. I wonder when the horror will end. I wonder which other towns will be wiped from the map, how many more lives will be lost.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There's an online letter writing campaign at the moment at After The Fires. The predictions for bushfire frequency in years to come in Australia are dire, so please write a letter to tell PM Rudd, Minister Wong and Minister Garrett that you think the government's carbon targets are weak.