Sound off, all those affected who are safe!

(returning to ember watch, will check back later in the morning!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2009 03:21PM by Bonzai Kitten.

Hope you are safe. I was worried about you, particularly with some of the areas I heard last night.

Scary. Hope you're still ok Kitten... x

I'm fine... I want to hear about everyone else!

Me too. Though with more to think about, internet access may not be high on their list of priorities, so don't worry yet...

I'm okay, just lots of smoke around yesterday. Visibilty out to the Yarra Ranges is pretty low even now.

I am fine, though worried about many friends. I know for sure at least two friends houses are gone.

It's been smokey in Wagga since yesterday - visibility about 500 metres - due to local fires in Tarcutta, Tumut and Temora (which have been nothing near the scale seen in Victoria).

Seems very strange to be looking at snow and worrying about bush fires - but my thoughts are very much with you all and I do appreciate the regular posts that show you are still safe.

News on the fforum seems to be coming through much quicker than on the BBC.

Please keep posting

Good to read that out fforumites are safe.

So far no one or nothing has set SA on fire but the place is tinder dry after the last two weeks. The 40C plus temperatures did not seem too hot - it was just trying to sleep at night. It's amazing how noisy an air-conditioner and fan become after continuous running for 24 hours. It's not that they get louder, it's just you become sensitised to them and become more irritated than you would be by the heat.

While we in the southern states have been concerned by fires it seems Queensland has to be different and have the worst floods in a century. Now if we could get the fires and the floods to get together in central NSW all would be well.

And in the northern hemisphere you have the worst blizzards 'in living memory'.

A good conspiracy theorist could have a field day with this. I don't know how you would work the 2.4 children in, though.

The grass and stuff sound as though you are walking on eggshells it is so dry.

Brown is so "in" right now.

Don't worry about the blizzards, Bunyip, the living memory is only for those who are still quite young!


It is true that because heavy snow is unusual in most of the U.K. whenever it does fall it causes chaos.

Meanwhile, i echo the sentiments oof others here and hope that all of you in Oz remain safe.

Many individual stories are now emerging on the news - at least one tv channel here has cancelled most of the scheduled shows and is simply broadcasting crosses to various locations. Surprisingly, the media has been mostly very dignified: I guess that's what happens when things are beyond sensationalising and you have the presenters on the ground who have been living with the people who have lost everything, friends and families - it's become a very personal thing for the presenters. For many of them, they are representing themselves as human beings for perhaps the first time in their careers.

When the dust settles there will, of course always be the overall, 'big story' of the fires, and the documentaries and 'Specials' will roll out. The real stories will be small, individual ones; but they will be in the millions - most of them shared amid tears only between friends and loved ones - of last minute escapes, of staying to fight, of deaths and losses, of sacrifices and heroism by ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

You get a glimpse or a glimmer, sometimes, of these stories as people are interviewed - they give out a few words, and their eyes well up, and that is about all that they can verbalise to share. Their words are unadorned and they convey all that one needs to know in order to make one feel very humble in comparison.

Last night I watched an interview with a young man who had remained in a town, which no longer exists, attempting to help others to escape and he, himself, had to be rescued by his brother who broke through police barricades to drive back into the inferno ("He's my brother, I wasn't going to leave him behind."). In the interview the sister of the first brother said that there were several small children they were worried about and that the police were trying to find them. "I found them", whispered the young man, and he stared at his sister, "I found them." The interview concluded in a silence that said all of what he had seen.

i have been watching it almost non stop for several days. i have no work at the moment and barely enough to pay my rent that pales in insignificance to what these poor people are going through.

I live in the city,so it is a long way from me geographically,but i feel like its only around the corner. i want to do something to help and offered my services with red Cross but there is little they can offer me to do because so many people have come to assist. Aussies always come together in times like this.

There is a telethon tonight on commercial tv to raise money Already 40m dollars has been raised across the country. I wish i could do more I feel so useless. I can only keep praying.
The rescuers and all those helping deserve all the praise.

What i dont understand is the stupidity of governments state governments not making joint decisions on safety warning . Much blame will come out and finger pointing. Will anything be done? Some of the fires were deliberately lit Latest news is that two people have been questioned about suspicious activity in the Seymour - Yea area The other fires appear to be caused by electric poles falling, this is where governments and council squabbles can be blamed, why aren't the poles made of steel? These are more study and less likely to fall down. Its money its state boundaries, it's B.S. They can find money to build a sports stadium but none for such essential protection of its citizens... Our prayers go out to all

As Mr. Puniverse noted, I'm watching the Telethon just now and it would appear that the honeymoon is over.

Ex-Australian Hollywoodians, media wannabees, hasbeens, A and B listers (who really knows which is which?), talentless socialites and media tycoons are, tonight, taking the opportunity to insinuate themselves in between sets by some genuine but sadly misled performers giving their time and talents gratis (how foolish of them) to beam their Colgate smiles upon the adoring public.

The "bushfire poster" mounted on the wall behind the laughing, applauding 'audience' (an invited mob of wannabees) almost sent my wife into apoplexy with its incongruence. Tonight the slide back to normal transmission begins; and who better to captain the good ship slide than Eddie McEverywhere (I'm sure Kitten and I have dissected this specimen before - football club owner and chairman, tv executive and chairman, journalist and producer, game show host and producer of said game show - Eddie McGuire would agree to be the guest speaker at the opening of an envelope).

My wife asked, "Why are you watching this ****?" And I answered, "I'm building up my rage."

It had to begin somewhere I suppose, this slide back into mediocrity; so what better place to draw the line. Many people lost their lives over the last week following the "stay and defend" policy with bushfires. It's time for Australians to decide if they want to stay and defend the quality reporting we've seen over the last week or if we're happy to slip back into the McGuirification of the humanity that is possible in the media presentation of tragedy, loss and sadness.

On tv tonight we have had "presented emotion" - a very sad construct. Especially when we have been treated to so much honesty, integrity and dignity by the sloggers in the field over the last week. What a shame that so many tv producers would be more respected if they were simply honest whores.

Robert, couldn't agree more about Eddie Everywhere - although Andrew O'Keefe on Channel 7 is almost as bad. I have thought that Ian Henderson on ABC is much better at talking to the affected, actually talking to them, rather than the interviews conducted by other stations. Say no to media-crity

We look out over the Yarra Valley and can see the smoke rising from Healesville and Kinglake as well from a hopefully safe distance in suburbia. Mrs CannibalRabbit's family are about 40Kms to the north of the Murrindindi-Yea complex, and last went through a fire 19 years ago. Not only will the survivors have to deal with lost loved ones and houses, but they will have to start making difficult decisions about live stock as well. It is going to be a long hard road for these people.

Bib are all of your friends safe?

I think so, I have heard from most. There are some people I know who may have been fighting the Beechworth fire, I don't know and probably won't until I speak to someone who is in close contact. Some were pretty lucky!

I'll stick to hiking in Winter! I prefer Winter.

You'll be pleased to know (perhaps) that i have done a little to assist by going to the Red Cross centre and helping pack boxes of generous gifts by the public.
I watched about five mins or so of the phoneython on Nine. I don't know how you sat through it Robert. Down Under was enough for me..Did Jessica Mallboy sing her song Burn it would have been about what i would've expected.

Glad your safe and friends too there Bib
We almost had decent journalism there for a day or so until Eddie Mcbuggeroff joined the fray..

Oh and one more thing Don't drink Fosters... While one hard working volunteer battled to help others for no money his gracious employers Fosters sacked him.
Profits profits profits.. Foster taste like piss anyway

A Kit Kat is a Biscuit



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2009 01:13PM by mr puniverse.

it's a week since the worst of the fires, but it is sticll hazy and smokey in Heathmont.

I, too feel helpless, and although I have donated money, I made an appointment to donate blood next week.

I decided not to watch Eddie Smarmypants, was more impressed with the joint Fox/MMM breakfast broadcast the other day,


I had to move seat on the train the other morning. I could not bear to see the photos of the children who have died on the cover of the newsapaper.
My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost everything.
Houses can be rebuilt, you cannot replace people.

Bring back capital punishment... even if just for these b#$^ards who lit these fires.

*hugs*

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland