Saturday the 07.02.2009 will forever be one of the saddest, darkest days in the history of the State of Victoria.The day dawned still and calm with no indication of horrendous carnage and devastation that would befall Victoria by the end of the day. Although authorities gave warning that the predicted weather conditions forecast for this day, would equal or surpass those of Ash Wednesday 1983. Warnings to implement fire plans and be ready and if need be evacuate early if you had made the decision to leave rather than stay and fight.
Searing temperatures and gale force wind blasts, created a firestorm that swept across the state of Victoria, and traveled more quickly than anything seem before. In some cases traveling 20 kilometers in 2 minutes, the skies rain ash and trees and home exploded in the inferno, survivors said that temperatures of 117 degrees Fahrenheit and blasting wind created the furnace like conditions.
Police believe that a number of the fires were deliberately lit, I find it hard to imagine what goes through the mind of a person that would deliberately put life and property a risk. I can only hope that police in the days to come are able to trace the culprits, so that they can be punished to full extent of the law.
Entire towns almost completely destroyed, so many life's lost, houses can be replaced, people can not. How do these people start to re-build life's shattered, homes lost , communities destroyed and how do we help them??
The Australian spirit, community spirit is alive and well if news reports are anything to go by, this tragedy has touched our nation. As a nation we will band together, you'll dig deep and give what we can, we will do what we can to try and help families and communities rebuild and put their lives back together. We can only hope the bureaucracy doesn't get in the way, what these families and communities need is for efforts to rebuild to be fast tracked. With so many displaced families the need is great to get them housed and back into some resemblance of normal life as soon as practical. We all need to do what little we can to help make this happen.
Searing temperatures and gale force wind blasts, created a firestorm that swept across the state of Victoria, and traveled more quickly than anything seem before. In some cases traveling 20 kilometers in 2 minutes, the skies rain ash and trees and home exploded in the inferno, survivors said that temperatures of 117 degrees Fahrenheit and blasting wind created the furnace like conditions.
Police believe that a number of the fires were deliberately lit, I find it hard to imagine what goes through the mind of a person that would deliberately put life and property a risk. I can only hope that police in the days to come are able to trace the culprits, so that they can be punished to full extent of the law.
Entire towns almost completely destroyed, so many life's lost, houses can be replaced, people can not. How do these people start to re-build life's shattered, homes lost , communities destroyed and how do we help them??
The Australian spirit, community spirit is alive and well if news reports are anything to go by, this tragedy has touched our nation. As a nation we will band together, you'll dig deep and give what we can, we will do what we can to try and help families and communities rebuild and put their lives back together. We can only hope the bureaucracy doesn't get in the way, what these families and communities need is for efforts to rebuild to be fast tracked. With so many displaced families the need is great to get them housed and back into some resemblance of normal life as soon as practical. We all need to do what little we can to help make this happen.
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