OT: The Australian Fires

[pmulcahy11b]

Are those of you in Australia OK regarding those fires?

[kcdusk]

kcdusk reporting in fine and unharmed. The fires were many miles from me. They were all in the lower right hand side of australia for those of you only familiar with its shape (or in victoria for those looking for more detail).

My sister used to live in ferntree gully, melbourne, and fires sprang up around there today/yesterday. She has since moved out of melbourne though so she is fine.

Speaking on behalf of others until they check in.

Targan - he is on the opposite side of the nation, so i assume he is fine.
Chalkline is Tasmania, which is close, but theres a fair body of water between the Isle of Tasmania and where the fires were.
Badbru (hey, keep the pizzas coming!) is also Perth which is the far side of Oz.

I cant think of anyone else from australia ... (this line is going to haunt me i think!).

Thanks to those who passed there thoughts on, especially the church goers in the USA who were "happy to see the homos in australia burning like god intended". That was classic.

[pmulcahy11b]

Thanks to those who passed there thoughts on, especially the church goers in the USA who were "happy to see the homos in australia burning like god intended". That was classic.

We have the same idiots here that say the same thing every time we get slammed by a hurricane. Some even blamed gays for 9-11. I'd laugh, but a lot of the right wing takes them seriously!

[Legbreaker]

I cant think of anyone else from australia ... (this line is going to haunt me i think!).
Typical! Leave me out....
I'm located just outside Launceston, in the north of Tasmania and I think I might be about the closest of everyone to the fires. However, as KC said, there's a great big body of ocean called Bass Strait between here and there. Even though I'm probably only about 200km from the fires, we haven't even has so much as a sniff of smoke here (prevailing winds and all).

While SE Australia is scorching and in flames, NE Australia is experiencing almost the exact opposite - widespread flooding.
Up there the rain just won't stop and some areas are predicted to be cut off for about another five weeks - provided they get no more rain!

Although there's been terrible loss of life, there is a silver lining behind both catastrophes. With such great distruction the economy is sure to get a kick start from all the rebuilding projects and insurance money that'll start flowing any time now.

[kcdusk]

Typical! Leave me out....
I'm located just outside Launceston, in the north of Tasmania

hehe. Sorry legbreaker. I guess i do a better job of remembering some of the guys who were around since i started at the previous site. I was a lot more up to date with things 2/3 years ago.

There will be more i have missed (wondering if i'll continue to read this thread now just to have people stick it to me :-)

[kato13]

You forgot Major Po and Blkrider. Neither is what I would call a frequent poster (5 and 0 respectively) so I guess it could be forgiven.

I also have the luxury of being able to look at the "Location" database ;) .

[Targan]

Targan - he is on the opposite side of the nation, so i assume he is fine.
Well in an amazing coincidence, on the day of the worst fires (Saturday September 7) I was on holiday in Victoria visiting my girlfriend and we were in central Victoria visiting friends. We were on the Hume Highway driving back to Melbourne when they had to close the Hume Highway in front of us when one of the killer fires crossed the highway.

The entire sky to the south of us was black, it was 48 degrees celsius and there were 70kph wind gusts so I knew some very, very bad sh*t was going down but it wasn't until the next day that my girlfriend and I realised that we had been less than half an hour away from being caught in the Kilmore fire.

The parents of the friend we were staying with north of Shepparton the night before managed to save their dogs and one of their cars but everything else they owned including their house and classic car collection were completely destroyed.

The fires have been a true tragedy. Unfortunately as I am a professional media monitor, as soon as I got back to Perth and returned to work most of my working days for the next week were filled with Victorian fire stories. I was a bit depressed there for a while.

[kcdusk]

, on the day of the worst fires (Saturday September 7) I was on holiday in Victoria visiting my girlfriend

(humph!)This is exactly why you should have GPS systems in your kids phones, so you know where they are and you can keep them out of trouble.

[Legbreaker]

Today is shaping up into a repeat of Friday the 7th.
Temps in excess of 40 degrees C in many areas of Victoria with stong winds in the morning with a gusty change later in the afternoon.

There's trouble brewing....

[pmulcahy11b]

(humph!)This is exactly why you should have GPS systems in your kids phones, so you know where they are and you can keep them out of trouble.

I've always had that problem -- take me out of the field, and I can't find anything. I can almost sense north in the field, but in the city...strange, for a kid who grew up on military bases.

[Legbreaker]

I've a feeling something's gone awry today. The air here in Launceston is full of smoke...

[Targan]

There are still four big fires burning in Victoria including the one that nearly caught my girlfriend and I at Kilmore weeks ago... its still burning today.

[Legbreaker]

Even though the fires have been burning for weeks (if not months), this is the first time we've had even so much as a sniff of smoke here, roughly 200+ km to the south.
Could be just a wind shift blowing old smoke, but after seeing the weather forecast earlier today....

[Legbreaker]

Good news! It's finally started to rain with authorities saying it's the beginning of the end!

Of course at the same time it's blowing a gale and trees are falling over crushing vehicles and homes all over the place....

:S