Fire and floods in Australia

[Australian]

What a mix of climatic extremes here in Australia over the past few weeks. We have horrendous floods in much of North Queensland and disastrous fire in Victoria. 25 people are confirmed dead overnight in Victoria with the total more likely be around 40. Temperatures got up to 47/47 degrees celcius in many parts of Victoria,South Australia and New South Wales yesterday. NSW will be under threat as well as Victoria today. It has cooled down in Victoria today but still there are fires out of control in the warmer areas of Victoria. Well over 200 homes have been lost. 18 people have been admitted to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne overnight with serious burns. this hospital is world renowned for its burns treatment. These main fires are only 60 ks north and north east of Melbourne.The rain has continued up north. Over the past week upwards of 40 inches of rain has fallen. The town of Ingham has been flooded for the past week. Floodwaters dropped yesterday then they rose again with a further 10 inches+ of rain. Ingham is near Townsville on the coast of far north Queensland.
We are so lucky where we live. No fire or flood problems here.
Colin

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

What is worse still is that most of the fires were deliberatly lit & what peeves me even more is that several of the fires were started by a CFS fire fighter. why because some lug nut wanted to be a hero what a load of bs. I have family & friends in Vic & while I know my family is safe I don't know how my friends are going, they were ok when I talked to them a few days ago.
I can only imagine the loss of the floods in Ingham

 

[hillsdown]

I was watching this on the news this evening..

Please, all of you stay safe .
Thoughts and prayers are with all of you..I hope they get the fire under control soon..

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/530 ... fires-cfa/
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/530 ... ler-fires/

 

[Alice]

I was watching this on the news this evening..

Please, all of you stay safe .
Thoughts and prayers are with all of you..I hope they get the fire under control soon..

Agreed!

Alice

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Wildfires have got to be one of the most frightening things. Fires and floods, all at once.

Prayers to you and your friends and families and hope you remain safe.

Katherine

 

[Australian]

Latest death toll is 50 and in excees of 500 homes gone. One township of about 1,000 people is completely gone. They have no death count from there yet. Most of Australia is in shock. We do all care about each other its only the idiots that don't.
Colin :cry2:

 

[Keren]

Death toll in Victoria is now 65

 

[Australian]

over 700 homes gone. Very tragic. We'll probably take some cattle to help people out and I'll get others about to do the same.
Colin

 

[chrisy]

Just watching it on the NEWS, that is terrible the death toll they are saying is inexcess of 69 people, and is thought to be more and most were in their cars trying to out run the fire. Not heard anything about the floods. My prays and thoughts go out to you all, please stay safe and Take Care.......Chris.

 

[Australian]

One car had 6 people in it,all died. A number of people in cars had accidents as well in their escape, no doubt people in these vehicles most probably died. A few of the cars had police tape around them. Picturesque towns are no longer that way but just a black mess.
Colin

 

[Keren]

Official death toll is now 84.

The footage of these towns - I've only seen images like that in war movies.

I just cant fathom 84 lives lost and 700 homes gone. If you consider a family home of 4 people, thats 2800 people homeless, without clothes, toiletries, the basics that we take for granted.

 

[hayray]

We are watching it on the news this morning right now. Stay safe.

 

[Angus Cowman]

been watching the news reports it is awful
is so sad about the losses
we had the same thing here in the states a few yrs ago where a fire fighter was to blame for setting the fires I beleive that was in the colorado fires

our prayers

 

[3waycross]

My condolences on your losses. Angus Cowman is right about the Hayman fire here in Colo, it was set by a fire fighter. We have also had fires set by out of work firefighters so they could have something to do.

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

The death toll has now risen to 108 in the Victorian fires Police have re-arrested a man in relation to the fires I'm thinking that it may be for the Sydney fires.

Updated to say 2 men(38 &15yr old) have now been charged with starting several of the fires

 

[Anonymous]

750 homes destroyed, so far 330,000 hectares burnt

This is just tragic...

 

[MO_cows]

It's an awful thing, saw several news reports and it's so sad. The people who were trying to get away in their cars but didn't make it just haunts me.

 

[Keren]

Death toll now 130

 

[Australian]

The death toll continues to mount. About 166 people gone now. Many homes have rooves that had collapsed,so no one knows what is beneath them. Over 5,000 people homeless. At least 750 homes gone. no one knows the extent of livestock loss. There were lots of small 2/5/10 acre blocks in that area,so one could imagine there would have been horses,donkeys,alpacas plus poultry etc on them. Many vineyards have been decimated. The area of a lot of the fires is the renowned Yarra Valley. This is the river that runs through Melbourne. There is still 40 plus fires burning in the state of Victoria.The main concerns are to the north of the earlier fire activity,on the western side of the Great Dividing Range ( Victoria's Alpine area) This disaster will be the subject of a huge coronial enquiry. Victorian residents would have to have been the most fire prepared people in all of Australia because of the incidence of fires in that area. These plans will all now come under review. The state had a policy that you either got out early or stay and defend your property. Many of those that stayed died,many died escaping in motor vehicles which in many cases crashed into others and they died by the roadside. The residents just had no time to escape. One family sheltered in a cement bunker that they had built next to a cement water tank. The husband of that family said that he was so thankful that his wife had nagged him to build it. maybe that is an idea for future safety. No amount of sprinkler systems would have saved homes in the inferno at the weekend.
This event has really brought home the need to care for all our people in our country. Wish it would be a lesson to all that are fighting in parts of the world that it is insignificant.