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Sympathy for the Aussies on My Flist
I've been reading for the past few weeks about the unbearable heat scorching Australia and...okay. I haven't had a whole lot of sympathy for it because it's dead-of-winter here in New England.
However, as a perused my FList this morning, I've been reading post after post about the horrific brushfires that have swept through Victoria.
Some of the fires were sparked by lightning strikes as the heatwave breaks, others by human thoughtlessness (one fire was started by a tossed cigarette but), some by re-ignition of the smoldering debris (a huuuuuuge problem in brush fires as I can personally attest), and some by out-and-out arson.
The count is horrific. Entire towns have been destroyed. Entire families killed. As of a half-hour ago, the official death toll was 84, but unofficially it appears that that there's a lot more dead and unaccounted for.
To all the Aussies on my Flist (especially those in south Victoria and neighboring states), please stay safe and I hope you and yours get out okay.
It should be noted that I've heard nothing about this disaster in the US press (to be fair, I haven't been watching any TeeVee this weekend as I'm busy...so maybe one of the cable nets gave it 5 second at the top of the hour..). I first learned about it (and had been reading about the heatwave) here on LJ.
We are the world, indeed.
However, as a perused my FList this morning, I've been reading post after post about the horrific brushfires that have swept through Victoria.
Some of the fires were sparked by lightning strikes as the heatwave breaks, others by human thoughtlessness (one fire was started by a tossed cigarette but), some by re-ignition of the smoldering debris (a huuuuuuge problem in brush fires as I can personally attest), and some by out-and-out arson.
The count is horrific. Entire towns have been destroyed. Entire families killed. As of a half-hour ago, the official death toll was 84, but unofficially it appears that that there's a lot more dead and unaccounted for.
To all the Aussies on my Flist (especially those in south Victoria and neighboring states), please stay safe and I hope you and yours get out okay.
It should be noted that I've heard nothing about this disaster in the US press (to be fair, I haven't been watching any TeeVee this weekend as I'm busy...so maybe one of the cable nets gave it 5 second at the top of the hour..). I first learned about it (and had been reading about the heatwave) here on LJ.
We are the world, indeed.
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Sad...
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The Red Cross is accepting donations online here.
Heat and Bushfires
I hope that Victoria will get a change i their weather soon they tend to follow our weather and they could do with some rain. Their situation brings back bad memories from 1983 when Ash Wednesday fires raged through both our states. The sad fact is arsonists find it particularly amusing in an insane way to start fires under these conditions. I think that it's kind of ironic that we in the southern end of Australia are having so much trouble with heat and bushfires and up in Queensland they are dealing with floods.
To everyone in Victoria i'm praying for a good week of rain for you guys, our thoughts are with you take care of each other and you know that everyone here is South Australia and the rest of the country will be there for you to help with the rebuild.
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Shakatany
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It's just awful.
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They're not "brushfires", but "bushfires". Think less grasslands, and more huge forests full of gum trees.
Thanks for your sympathy. We need it!
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