More about the bushfires

[cleolinda]

I am SO BEHIND on links and entries and answering comments (and work ) and things, which is not really unusual and probably the story of my life, but so it goes. At any rate, a number of people have sent in links pertaining to the Australian bushfires, and I wanted to post those, but at a point when they wouldn't get lost amid the regular linkspam. So here we are.

From purple_smurf: "This explains why these fires are different, and why the death toll is so high. (For the record, 46C = 114.8F.)"

Every year, it happens. Houses burn, livestock are lost, and people turn to each other and say that it sounded like a train, that the fire moved as fast as they could run. That they lost the house but the kids are okay. It's horrible, but it's normal.

None of this is normal.

.... The radiant heat [this time] has been described as like Dresden. Houses were exploding into flame ahead of the firefront. While normal ember attacks give you a decent length of time for the house to stand before it is unsalvageable (the eaves and under the house start smouldering, small fires begin, but it's usually after the front has past that the house really catches light), this time large properties were gone in minutes.

From foxo11: "Here's the link to the people who are known to have perished in the bushfires. The number is still rising." Three hundred is the number being discussed now, as victim searches begin.

From e_chan_21: "In regards to the bushfires, I wonder if I could turn your attention to this. It's a journal entry written by my brother, writer Andrew Hutchinson, about my eldest brother Ben. Ben has lost everything in the Kinglake fires but refuses to leave the town while there is still recovery work to be done. There are other entries in my lj about the bushfires, but I find that Andrew's entry pretty much sums things up." It actually made me cry, by the way.

My brother is still out fighting the Kinglake fire. He's been working virtually non-stop since it began. I think he's trying to keep busy so he doesn't have to stop and think about it. About the town being burned to nothing. The dead bodies in the paddocks. In the burnt out cars along the roads. About his house, his stuff, all gone. And the one thing that always stands out for me with my brother Ben is that he's a good person. He would do anything to help out anyone. He has always put himself out to assist others. His entire life is dedicated to taking care of his young daughter and helping the local CFA. He would sacrifice his personal happiness to achieve this, without any hesitation. Yet he's the one who gets the bad deal. It's always such a confusing equation, in that you want for good things to happen to good people.

Meanwhile, kaymbee reports, "I've been working at one of the relief centres for survivors and donations in my hometown Wallan for the past week - all my posts are here. And if nothing else, please pass on this article from the Herald-Sun, the more widely read state newspaper: Where the hell is everyone? - an account of the last few hours in Marysville."

From g_woman82, regarding Sam the koala: "People can also make donations to Wildlife Victoria and also the RSPCA to try and assist the animal carers too!"

And iamshadow has more links to help the helpless: Triple R Equine Welfare Inc ("scroll to the bottom for the 'donate' button"); Animal Aid; Wildlife Rescuers; WRAP - Wildlife Rescue and Protection Inc; Healesville Sanctuary. "Also, ABC forums have an excellent list of Things you can do to help, including donations of money, but also listing donations of time from skilled volunteers (such as electricians), temporary housing, blood donations and donations of non-perishable food and clothing."

And, once again: You can donate to the Australian Red Cross here.

ETA: The volunteer-run Bushfire Survivor list, to reduce strain on the Red Cross missing persons line by letting people check for friends and family themselves.

ETA: From jwaneeta: Sweet God almighty, it really does sound like a freight train.

Comments

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

Australia... ;_;

[thelovely2.livejournal.com]

I have friends in Australia... I feel like having a panic attack.

*cries*

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

So do I. I think that's what makes it so damned hard to read about.

[serenity-winner.livejournal.com]

I can't believe how badly this has escalated. I mean, you hear fire and you think oh, they'll put it out. But it's not that simple. :(

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

None of this is normal.

I read that whole post and I can't even...fuck. That got to me more than anything I've read so far about these horrific fires, even more than the picture of Sam the koala, and that nearly tore my heart out. Thanks for the Red Cross link.

[alexthedevil.livejournal.com]

I actually meant to link you to this one earlier, so I'll just throw it in the comments:

A reporter's tale of surviving the fire - "How we cheated the flames of death" (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25026912-2702,00.html).

The author is actually the uncle of one of my friends who lives about 10 minutes away from him (she's fine, the fire didn't go anywhere near her), and he lived in the same street as my best friend who I mentioned last week, who lost her house and her brother.

It's amazing - everybody in Melbourne knows someone who was effected, whether they lost their homes and/or loved ones, or whether they were simply just concerned because their friends' houses were under some form of threat.

Last I've heard the amount raised was an astonishing $77 million though, I'm not sure whether that includes the corporate donations or not.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Or how far that will go to rebuild, for that matter.

[sesquipedeviant.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate you making this post.
Could you PLEASE tell your friendslist about legless123's volunteer-run Bushfire Survivor list (http://www.daftdoggy.com/bushfire/Summarysmry.php?grpperpage=ALL)? Anyone can send in updates about known survivors, simple things like:

Bartlett Maddison St Andrews
12 years old. Reported in The Age today as survived but in the Royal Childrens Hospital. Her parents and young sister are reported as not surviving. Check this link (http://www.theage.com.au/national/hospitals-staff-shock-over-girls-death-20090212-859i.html).

Bartlett Grace Marysville
Reported by Faith Brown to be at Marylands Country House with Martin Bainbridge & Michael McNamara.


This is a hugely important resource. It reduces the strain on the Red Cross, and the stress of the people trying to get through.

As Legless says (http://legless123.livejournal.com/116518.html):

"I've talked to people who spent over 48 hours solid ringing the Red Cross missing person line and getting the engaged tone. Hang up, hit redial and repeat."

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

This is a brilliant idea. I don't know anyone who's unaccounted for, but I know of someone who got out okay (though she lost her home and some of her pets) and she doesn't appear to be on that list yet. I've passed the link on to her friend in case she wants to add her name.

[sailorcoruscant.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite yarn stores in Victoria is asking for people to knit squares that she will make into blankets for the victims.

Her request is copied here. (http://www.sailorcoruscant.com/weblog/2009/02/blog-post.html)

[sushixpack.livejournal.com]

I can't even comprehend how bad this has gotten. D:

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

Just in case you want to clean up the links a bit - the link for Wildlife Victoria and Wildlife Rescuers is the same website. Not a mistake, just duplication. :)

I also wrote about the realities of growing up under the threat of bushfires, though my post is less about facts and more nostalgic than blamebrampton's was. You don't have to add that to the linkspam; it's just another view if people here are curious. It's unlocked, and comments and questions are fine so long as people are polite.

The weather, the fires, and Australia in general (http://iamshadow.livejournal.com/284401.html)

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

The article Where the hell is everyone? may be the most powerful piece of journalism I've ever read.

[girlthethird.livejournal.com]

It really is. Especially the part about those in Melbourne having no idea. We really were completely unaware of the extent of the destruction and chaos until around Monday.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I sent the Australian Red Cross some money, but their form asks for an address, but it doesn't let you list your state properly if you're not Australian. I hope it goes through properly.

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed that too, but I just put my state in the same box as my city, and chose "outside Australia" in the state box. It seemed to work; it's already shown up on my bank statement.

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm lucky, all my friends got out of Marysville safely. But this has shocked our whole community.

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad all of your loved ones got out okay. I wish there was more I could do than sit here feeling shell-shocked on the other side of the planet. :(

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

The more stories I hear/read about the fires, the more I start to hate the internet.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The internet? Why?

[evilbearhunter.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ! That is beyond terrifying.

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

Thankyou.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering how this all got so very deadly and out of control. I live in Montana, so it isn't as if I'm not well-versed in wildfire season and all that that entails, but holy crap. Thank you for the links; I understand better now what's happened and why.

[not-tragedi.livejournal.com]

Dear God, it reminds me of the sound of Hurricane Floyd coming in off the waters in NJ. I keep them all in my thoughts and hope for the best.

Isn't it flooding in one part of Australia as well?

[twigsandgrace.livejournal.com]

Yea, in a couple of places. In QLD (link (http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/qld-flood-damage-bill-may-exceed-210m-20090216-88tl.html)), it was pretty bad, and convoys with supplies weren't able to get in for a week or so, and over the weekend, it flooded northern NSW (link (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25060441-5006784,00.html)).

The thing that gets me is some of the people affected by the QLD floods are giving their Govt. support money to those affected by the VIC fires. Sometimes, people are awesome. (link (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/10/2487237.htm?section=australia))

[jaseroque.livejournal.com]

Thanks for putting this up. I'm from Australia (though thankfully not from Victoria) and it just helps to know that the whole world is chipping in on this one.

[agatha-mandrake.livejournal.com]

This is my worst nightmare. The area I'm living in is surrounded on all sides by thousands of acres of dead trees. Some of the trees have been dead for half a decade. The forest floor is covered in dry needles. A hot day, strong wind, the spark from some logging equipment or a cigarette butt, and it will be apocalyptic. And it's only a matter of time.

[junebugged.livejournal.com]

Cleo, would it be okay if I link people to this entry? I think you've got some really great links here to information / resources and I don't want to pilfer it all for my own entry... I want to give credit to where it's due.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Of course!

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

Cleo, thankyou. I've been keeping up to date with the news (in fact, you pretty much can't avoid it here, as much as I sometimes want to) and the accounts (especially that 'where the hell is everyone?') have brought me to tears countless times.

blamebrampton's rationale, so far, has struck the truest chord with me, mostly because everything there is what we all (even in the city) were taught as kids to do in a fire. And as noted there, no-one should be be laying blame around.

Although on that note though, have you heard about the suspected arsonist (http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2009/02/13/news/doc49958985f0703553464136.txt) they've caught? This cannot end well. There is no possible chance for him to have a fair trial, yet if he is given a 'soft' sentence or heaven forbid, released, there will be riots in the street...

(Also regarding the Red Cross, if you could mention that especially with blood donations (although this is relevant to Aussies only, I know) that they're going to be needed over the next few months to a year it would be much appreciated. The blood vans and centres are being swamped, from what I understand, but the burn victims won't be going anywhere, so if people want to wait a fortnight or so to donate, it's still going to go to those desperately in need.)

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

A couple of days ago the police were talking about cases where they couldn't tell how many bodies they were looking at. Today they were talking about cases where there's nothing left at all, except maybe melted jewellery. I think the estimates for the worst of it were at about 1200C (2100F), which is hotter than a crematorium :-(

[havocs-roman.livejournal.com]

The sound of the fire in the link is one of the most horrifying things I've ever heard--it reminds me slightly of all that footage of the tsunami in Indonesia in that this unstoppable force of nature came roaring out of nowhere and it was the last thing these people heard in their lives, it's too wrenching to be put in words, oh, God.

I have family in Australia, although thankfully not in the affected areas, and I feel weirdly dirty for sitting confortably in my room - quite literally, in the antipodes of this - being horrified at online footage, knowing that nothing in my mind's eye can possibly match what actually went on there.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for helping to get the word out about all the organisations that are helping to rebuild Victoria. In an oddly circular request, do you mind if I link to this?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Feel free!

[fizzylizard.livejournal.com]

Thank you.