Our members down under are suffering with raging wildfires that have left over a hundred people dead and untold amounts of property damage. My heart goes out to all of you.
The Australians have always been there to assist in time of need and I believe it appropriate to return the favor.
Donations can be made to: http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp
Thanks, Tim
I have been thinking of them too. Thanks for the post. Prayers sent form Liverpool, Pennsylvania.
Wow, I had heard about some wild fires down there but did not know it was that wide spread, my friend Gringo and others, I hope all is well with you and yours…
Tim
I am touched - thanks guys.
Its true that we have had some extreme weather (I think 5-7 days over 105 degrees) on top of a drought, then high winds on Saturday which set some fires that were totally out of control all around this State. Some are still going but so far as well as thousands of acres two complete towns have been totally wiped out along with approaching 150 lives lost… it is far from over yet.
Thanks for your thoughts. Heres a snip from the paper today:
Welcome to Herald Sun.
[b][Herald Sun](http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun)[/b]
[b]Marysville - an unthinkable grave[/b]
Article from: [[IMG]http://www.news.com.au/images/sources/h14_heraldsun.gif[/IMG]](http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/)
[ul]
[li] Font size: Decrease Increase[/li][li] Email article: Email[/li][li] Print article: [Print](javascript:print();)[/li][li] Submit comment: Submit comment[/ul] Terry Brown[/li] February 08, 2009 06:25pm
[b]A GREY army blanket beside Falls Rd covers a human-shaped lump. More than 15 hours after the fires went through, it can't be what it seems.[/b]
It is just laying there on the roadside at the fringe of town like dumped rubbish.
Two locals gently lift a corner of the blanket and look.
The whole town is a scene of almost unimaginable destruction, but their faces are more desolate.
It is a young girl, they think. They look again.
Marysville is a close-knit town. Everyone knows everyone, but they can’t tell who it is they have found.
[ul]
[li][b]Special report:[/b] Victoria in flames[/ul] [/li]They only know that it seems to be a young girl.
Five minutes stroll away, Dan Walsh sits on the porch of a cream-brick house.
It is one of perhaps a dozen buildings the inferno spared.
The 74 year old looks to be one of the lucky ones, but his handshake is weak and his eyes are haunted.
A car pulls up and he excuses himself. “Got to talk to my son.”
“Mum’s dead,” he tells his boy Michael, as bluntly as that.
The young man drops to his knees by the roadside and sobs.
Mr Walsh left his 73-year-old wife Marie at the plush Cumberland spa in the town’s main street.
They had gone there to sit out the worst, and by early evening the fire around there seemed over.
"I said “It’s gone now but in case of fire, out the door and down to the swimming pool area’,” Mr Walsh says.
“I said I’d go back and see if I could save the house. It’s got all our stuff in it.”
Whisps of smoke still rise around the yard and he walks in a daze putting them out.
“She must have gone further inside thinking it was safer,” he says, trying to make sense where there is none.
"That’s my estimate. I don’t know. I haven’t seen the police yet.
“I’m just too shell-shocked to think. I’m just buggered.”
The Cumberland is a block away in the heart of what little is left of Marysville’s elm-lined tourist strip.
Emergency vechicles drive past occasionally, but there is no sense of urgency, or real point to it.
“A few more in there,” a CFA volunteer says, gesturing at the Cumberland.
“There’s three in a car around the corner. One in a car down there.”
Most locals have fled in a convoy to Alexandra, nothing any more to keep them in town.
They huddled through the night at Gallipoli Park. Some sat in the lake.
One woman looks around in shock and disbelief.
Marysville was one of the prettiest little towns in the state.
Now it is just chimneys, smoke, twisted corrugated iron and car bodies.
Marysville has died, and that is not remotely the worst of it.
She says the word around is that two mums perished, each dying with two of their children.
Serveral others died in the Cumberland. A couple is missing.
The girl under the grey blanket, she has heard, is actually a woman who was nine months pregnant.
Senior Constable Peter Collyer, a Marysville cop for six years, talks out his car window and abandons police-speak.
“Day turned to night. It was black with embers,” he says.
“The sound was like 50 tidal waves coming over the top of you.”
Judy Jans lost an old cottage but saved her home.
She asks Sen-Constable Collyer to pass word that she’s around if anyone needs somewhere to go.
But there is almost no one left. There is no town any more.
“We watched our house next door blow up, then the next house, it blew up, because everybody’s got a lot of gas bottles, you see,” she says.
"And then the next house, the next house and we’re just watching all these houses rip into these balls of flame and explode around us.
“I’ve heard there are only about fifteen houses left standing.”
Wildlife carers cruise the street trying to help injured animals but find nothing.
With the town almost empty, it is quiet and eerie. No birds are singing.
It is as quiet as the grave Marysville has become.
? Herald and Weekly Times. All times AEDT (GMT + 11).
[IMG]http://www.flyanglersonline.com//secure-au.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=newscorp&cg=0[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/images/logo-print.gif[/IMG]
Good evening ( I wish is was here in Australia)
Thanks for your well wishes and kind thoughts.
This is a strange country,
In the South we have fires that have now consumed maybe 200 lives, eaten about 750PLUS homes and destroyed everything in its path.
Mainly because the fire travelled at about 100kph/60miles per hour !!!
And in the North about 1500 miles away we have towns flooded, and have been for over 10days.
Myself, we are ok, and its a normal cool summer here, however, our hearts are in both the South and the North with things that only a nightmare could bring and far, far worse.
Kindest regards
Barry
Here’s praying that our Cousins Down Under are safe.
Here’s wishing all the best for all our friends Down Under, regardless of the conditions in their particular locale.
I think I can say all of us here are praying for our friends down under.
So added to the prayer lists here in Wyo.
That is awfull news from Australia, we are sending some fire fighters and our best wishes from NZ.
Mike.
I just heard the news on the way to work today. This is awful! I’ll keep Australia in my prayers. I hope no more lives will be lost.
Our prayers are with you.
Bernie
While I don’t know any of the Australian FAOLers in person, I have spent 5 days on an Australian sheep station while on R&R from Viet Nam and was welcomed by every Australian I met. I also got to serve with some of the lads from the 5th Royal Australian Regiment in Viet Nam. Great lads, everyone of them and the only people I went to the bush with except other Airborne Rangers.
I’m with Panman, even a small donation to the Australian Red Cross can make a difference in someones life. I’m in.
REE
Your kind thoughts and generousity will be appreciated by those in need. Friends of mine just lost their house and other friends are currently under threat by a very large fire. We have been spared so far. I don’t know what to say other than passing on those facts and my thanks to you on their behalf.
Gringo … Thank you for the news. I was (still am) concerned.
Here’s hoping things get under control soon. Take care guys.
Australia is in our prayer here as well, keep your heads up!
I need to tell you guys that we up here have had a keen eye on the horrid fires there. Hope it helps in some small way to know that we at least are aware of things there and are saying some words in your favor. Hope they catch the bugger who started the mess.
Just reading on an Aus papers web site that one of the profesors at Victoria uni is blaming conservationists, seems the Greenies have stopped the old practice of controlled burn offs, so there has been a huge build up of nice dry undergrowth, perfect for a big fire.
Hope all is well with all our Aussie mates.
Mike.
Mike they always say that; if they burn off they get blamed for wildlife kills and if they don’t…
Anyway despite cooler weather some fires are still going out of control. The main problem seems to have been the lack of warnings and suddeness of it all; people had elected to stay with their homes and found themselves in serious trouble very quickly. It looks like the death toll will be around 300, and most of those burnt alive trying to protect their house or flee.
For those following this a quick update:
So far 900,000 acres of forest and farmland destroyed
Over 1,000 homes destroyed
183 lives lost
two major fires still going
Thanks all.