I have come here a number of times in an attempt to update, but just haven't found the words.
What's happened this week has changed me forever. It sounds stupid and it sounds cliche; but these fires happened close by here.
For years, numerous people in the shire have been wanting, no screaming, for backburning. Because, being where we are; it's just not safe to have such fuel loads in such hard to get to places. It's not rocket science.
We have had drought here now for 12 years. In a shire where it's illegal to cut down any sort of tree, remove any sort of grass, or take away any dropped wood; surely, surely someone in authority was awake to what was going to happen.
Introduce the exact receipe for a firestorm - add the fuel load that was there; and bam. Up to 300 people gone. Maybe more. 8-10 towns either severely destroyed; or like Marysville, wiped off the map.
Had the fires burnt the other way from St Andrews, or even Whittlesea / Doreen; we'd have been in real trouble. We're in suburbia and we're worrying about bushfires. I am feeling very much 'there but for the grace of god go I' at the minute.
All we can do is give what we have. We have been up to Whittlesea and given bedding, clothing and all manner of toiletries. We have donated to the Red Cross and have registered to give blood. I have put my name down to volunteer, should they require. Because, if that's all I have to do to help them out; I'm getting off lightly.
These people, to me, are not just fellow Victorians. They are my friends. They are my neighbours. And that terrifies me.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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2 comments:
hi shel
it must be hellish to witness this trauma first hand or even reflect on how close you and your family came to potential disaster.
i suspect bush dwellers and outer suburbanites are reflecting on "there but for the grace of god go i", in regard to the victorian bushfires.
take care, terry
We are feeling the same..had the wind changed we would have lost the house we are building :( . It is scary and I'm shocked to my core that we are so close to this situation, location wise. It is hard to imagine these areas just completely gone..registering the pictures on the t.v of the rubble with the way the towns actually were is unbelieveable.
We have also donated all we can and have them all in our thoughts.
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