Janie, Cordelia, and other Aussies.... | Arthritis Information

 

I hope and pray you are no where near those devastating fires. I just saw on the news that the death toll is now at 108....dear God!

LyndeeNZ2009-02-08 14:52:22Yes, I saw that too.  Prayers for all.  Fires are not fun. Yes it has been very devastating.

Whole families have perished in their houses or cars while fleeing in panic.
Whole townships burnt to the ground.

I was very emotional last night as the full impact of the fires reached our living rooms via the television.
I know friends of friends that have been affected by this or were out trying to control the fir storms.
The gut wrenching stories of how they had to decide on what properties to save and those properties that they knew they had no hope of saving.

The size of these  fires are small compared to what we have had before but they are the deadliest in this countries history.

I heard one story of a family that tried to out run the fire, they were doing 140km an hour with the fire keeping pace right behind them.
If the road had not deviated out of the path that the fire was on, they might have ended up another statistic.

I am safe, my friends are safe, non the less I feel a loss.


Bodak2009-02-08 15:00:55I have been watching Sky news today and its so unbelievable and devastating. We have friends who moved to Australia from South Africa a month ago and have been moved from their house to a safe house for the time being...its been very frightning for them. The firefighters found a whole family trying to flee the fire dead in their car..its just heartbreaking.this is so heartbreaking.    I hope you all keep safe!http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/catastrophe/#commentsmore

Oh that is terrible. The pictures how awful. So sad that people lost their lives like that. To loose a home is one thing, but loved ones also. I bet the fire fighters are exhausted. Take care and prayers out to all affected.

Aren't there also floods in Austrailia as well.  I heard something today about the crocs encroaching on the population.  The news story I was watching told a story of a 5 year old being snatched right in front of their father.  Just horrible. I wasn't aware of this- now that I am prayers going up for all our Aussie friends. HI guys, thank God we are nowhere near the fires, but as Stephen says the sadness and feeling of hopelessness in what we can do to help is awful.  The news comes on and I feel frightenend to watch as the death toll keeps rising, all I can say is thank God for the firefighters and all the other volunteers that are helping to feed, clothe, and comfort the suffering.  I have a friend who lives in the area that is under threat today so I am about to email and see if she is ok or evacuating.  God Bless everyone.  The floods in Queensland are closer to us but nowhere near enough to affect us thank God, apparently 68% of Queensland is under water, amazing that this big country has so many different things going on at once.  Janie.  Thanks for your prayers and thoughtfulness Lyndee, and everyone else..
This is not getting any better. The toll now stands at 126 Stephen just know that we in Kiwiland are feeling so sad/helpless at whats happening on our doorstep. I know we have 100 firefighters going over to OZ as soon as possible and I wish I could help. NZ is very dry right now too and we have had some fires but NOTHING like what you are having. The deaths are now at 131 and could rise to 230.  We can see the smoke from the house.  My sister-in-law and family  have been on alert in Panton Hill which is next to St Andrews where at least 9 people died.  We almost moved to Healesville a few years ago.  Right in the middle of it all.  A friend's Inn in Narbethong was spared and is now being used as a staging ground for fire crews.   When the fire passed and they headed for Kinglake he said they were passing dead bodies on the roads.  It is absolutely gut wrenching to see.  They have blocked off the whole township of Marysville and are treating it as a crime scene.  Mark and I went there just a few months ago and enjoyed a stroll down the main street.  Now the whole town is gone, flattened, there is one building left standing.  sorry to hear of the fires. Much prayers for ya'll. Good to hear that you are OK Pam. When I read that most of these fires were arson, it was beyond my belief.  Then I saw the footage on Queensland being under water and the contrast was so sharp.  I hope the situation is starting to stabilize, as I am very impressed with the work of the firefighters and how quickly they got on top of most of these fires.  And the death toll keeps rising.  Many, many prayers for our friends "Down Under".  Hi all, thanks so much for your concern, that's lovely. It's awful. The fatality rate as of 10pm here was 130 definite.

Bodak is the closest, being in Victoria and also Pammy is there also.

Janie and I are both in Queensland, two very big states away. Janie is north of me in Harvey Bay about 3 hours and I live in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast which is an hour north of the Queensland capital, Brisbane.

The floods in Queensland are well north of Janie around Ingham and north of there. Here on the Sunshine Coast we not even having rain let alone the floods the up north
are experiencing. The flood repercussions are devastating also.

Today, where I am...the temperature was unbelievable. It must have been close to 40 degrees celcius which isn't common here but does happen. The weather report for tomorrow is down to 27 degrees celcius. 40 degrees is shocking for RA. I actually prefer the cold as although I am achey and still, I can manage that. In the heat, I am just wiped out with fatigue.

I still have my air conditioning on at 11pm. It's still very warm, the temperature is only just beginning to drop now. Today I had a nap with air con and two fans on me. I was still hot enough to be uncomfortable. Yuk.

Thanks for asking about us Aussies and checking that we are okay.

Hugs to you all.  Hey Cords, how ya doin?  Love Janie.  Hows my little Nevie.  Are you on facebook, I am, so think about it, its fun. As Kiwis now living in New York, we took a 2 week driving tour of Victoria a few years ago, while home in NZ to see family. We drove through many of the towns being affected by the fires. It sounds like hell on earth and absolutely tragic how people are dying in their vehicles trying to flee, dying trying to save their houses, dying trying to get to family and pets. It is hard to know what to say and it is not helpful when folks around me in cubeville here at work are not even aware that this is going on. CNN is continuing to cover and as Lyn mentioned, I know NZ is sending relief firefighters. It's hard to know what we can do except pray and find out where friends and family are. We have friends in Numurkah which seems to be outside the fire area at least for now. We stayed in Horsham, visited Healesville - so many of these names are familiar to us.

 

I am so sorry, but am relieved to hear that folks on AI are OK. God grant that it continues.

 

Cynthia

The pictures on the news are unreal - it is hard to imagine everything being wiped out so fast!  I hope everyone from AI and their families continue to be spared from this disaster. I just want to add my thoughts and healing energy to our down under family.  Stay strong and don't let this stress effect your health. 

Waddie
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this fire and their families.  This is truly a devastating event.  Hiking_galContinued prayers.Humanity.

From todays paper comes this image.
Not only are these volunteers putting their lives at risk fighting this disaster they have time for this poor Koala.

what a beautiful picture, I know so many people have lost their lives and homes but there all these beautiful animals too, with no where to run and no water or food...thanks stephen.Bodak-

 

Continued prayers and good wishes.

To all my dear friends in Australia,

Know you are in my thoughts and prayers, daily. I am in So. Calif. and know the devastation of fire very well. 

Please stay safe, my friends.

Much love to all,

Nini

Thanks for thinking of us all Nini, and also to everyone else, please God, the fires will stop soon, altho it will be hard with idiots around that light them for fun, I can't fathom it myself?  Hugs Janie

Janie,

It is good to know you guys are nowhere near the fires and are safe.  It has been all over the news here and to see so many weren't so lucky is very sad and sad to know arson is suspected in all of this.

continued prayers for this situation and the families directly affected.  Many blessings.

Janie-

 

Prayers.  Yes, unfortunately some idiots do set fires.  They have done that here.

The thread moved so quickly, I didn't realize you had all checked in.  So you are all here, that's fantastic. that's wonderful.  It is emotional to see so many lives lost and lives affected.  It's very sad to watch.

Surprised to see the koala bear photo allowing the firefighter to give him a drink of water. I guess he realizes this is someone here to help.  Amazing photo.

Stay safe everyone. take care.

Hope things are better.Things are just going from bad to worse.

They have stopped publishing the death toll.  That can only mean one thing, it is going up very quickly.

1800 houses have been destroyed by fire.

It has been established that several of the fires WERE arson, one man has been charged with a fire that killed 21 people.

 

About 10 years ago we had a property in Healesville that we were going to build a house on.  That area has been under threat for the last few days.  They even named the street  our block of land was on.  It may have taken 10 years, but now we have an answer to our question....why doesn't this feel right? 

 

Tonight we had a beautiful crimson, smokey sunset.  Magnificent colour, but just another reminder of the fires.  We can smell smoke from the house and everything is seen through a smoke haze.  There are still over 20 fires burning and it is going to be another hot weekend.   We live across the road from a state forest.  that is a bit frightening.  It was subject to another bush fire several years ago (also set by an arsonist). We could see the flames from the house.  Please pray that no more idiots think it is a fun thing to do.

 

I actually found myself getting depressed with the 24/7 coverage on the TV.. Pammy, how lucky you are to have listened to your instinct! 
Stephen, I can see how depressing that could be.  How heartbreaking it all is!  I am scared to death about what this summer may bring here as we too are in an awful drought. 

Stay safe and healthy friends!
[QUOTE=Bodak]I actually found myself getting depressed with the 24/7 coverage on the TV.. [/QUOTE]

The enormity of this tragedy is too much to take in.  I agree the 24/7 news coverage, with disturbing images and stories, takes a toll, so step back, perhaps limit tv watching, or listen to the radio for the latest. 

We have had our share of disasters in California, but nothing with this scale of loss of life.  My heart goes out to all Australians.

I enjoyed the photo you shared of the koala being given water by the firefighter.  An uplifting moment.  So, here's another sweet photo and story, of a pig in the UK.  Hope it brings a smile, and a momentary distraction from the heartache so many are feeling.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2105763/Meet-Cinderella,-Pig-in-Boots.html
 
Hopefully, this keeps Cinders off the menu!!! 

Stephen, how is that cute new grandbaby?

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