Australian fires

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sat February 7th, 2009, 7:23 pm

Yesterday it was not only hot, but also very hot northerly winds. Because so much of the country is in drought then yes there is dust.

I woke this morning to find out that there have been 14 confirmed deaths in the last 24 hours due to bushfires, and they are expecting to find more today. There are also more fires in the other states. They believe that there are at least 100 homes lost at this point, but again, they are expecting that number to rise.

The irony is that in the northern parts of Queensland there has been flooding, with some communities being isolated without supplies for a couple of weeks now.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 1:24 am

Wow! Irony sucks. (is my age showing?)

I hope things get better soon.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 7:52 am

Death toll is currently 65, and expected to continue to climb.

pat · Post by **pat** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 8:09 am

Towns razed. Towns. Hard to think off.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 12:18 pm

[quote=""pat""]Towns razed. Towns. Hard to think off.[/quote]

It's hard to fathom isn't it. This is now officially Australia's worst natural disaster.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 3:27 pm

I hope you all are far enough away from this. I hadn't seen much on the local news and didn't know how bad it was. I found these two photo bits online,

http://media.theaustralian.com.au/multi ... index.html

http://media.theaustralian.com.au/multi ... index.html

annis · Post by **annis** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 6:23 pm

Sympathies to our Aussie cousins on the tragic losses through fire which you've suffered
http://www.smh.com.au/index.html

We can appreciate how bad it must b,e as in New Zealand we're catching the overflow from your heatwave and our skies are filled with a weird orange glow from the Ausralian bushfires
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10555709

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 7:24 pm

The death toll has just gone over 100, and the fires are still burning. There are towns that are under threat.

Libby · Post by **Libby** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 8:24 pm

I've just been on another forum where people have relatives who have lost their homes in the fires. It's tragic. And there is talk of the fires being started deliberately.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 8:27 pm

At least some of them have been deliberately lit. It's hard to
understand what thrills that can be gained by these firestarters can
be worth 108 lives (at least) and hundreds of homes.

One of my family members works with a woman who lost her son, his fiancee and his friend. He rang to say goodbye because he knew they weren't going to make it out. So incredibly sad.