It lives with you forever.
This morning the hot northerly wind was blowing, the only difference to two years ago, was the grass was green and the temperature wasn’t 35’c at 8am in the morning.
The words of my father came back to me “Are you ready?” – he called me at 8.15am the 7th February 2009, he knew, I knew, the CFA knew. It was going to be bad.
Just nobody knew how bad.
I never want anyone to go through what others did on that day – and that is why I keep pushing people, be prepared, be alert, don’t turn your back on the outside world.
Sure an air conditioner is great to keep you cool and closed blinds help with that.
Many people weren’t aware there was problem until the power went out, by then it was too late.
Too late to run, too late to prepare, too late to do anything other than pray.
I want people to realize that the CFA website, can’t keep up with the fires, with fast fires like those of Black Saturday. I remember watching the fire start at 11-11.15am in Kilmore and seeing the smoke. The CFA website didn’t list any problems, until 11.30am from memory, by then it was too late.
I can’t stress enough, be prepared, don’t pretend it won’t/can’t happen to you, 173 people died and many only came through by their shirt tails.
Clear your property now, clear your gutters, clear under the house. Remove overhanging branches.
Please don’t think it won’t happen, don’t let your family, friends and parents find out the hard way.
Take care out there – it may have rained, but that has only increased the amount of undergrowth, and thus the overall fire risk. Don’t become a statistic.
2 comments:
Hi Heather - been tweeting back and forth tonight.
I remember that day vividly; we were all set to evacuate our brand new home that we'd just moved into six or seven weeks before. We were so confident that we'd get plenty of warning if it was necessary... ha!
Nobody had ANY idea how bad it was going to get. A grass fire started just down the road and spread into the Plenty Gorge - when I called 000, all I got was a recorded message that the lines were all busy. Luckily the CFA were already on the job. What we didn't know until much later was that that particular fire was not under control for almost two weeks.
I remember the choking smoke, the total lack of visiblity, and the tension in the air. Any day like today makes me anxious now...
I'm thankful that the wind has dropped, and that the danger seems to have passed for now. But what is WITH these morons and their fireworks???
Yeah I know about that fire, got people calling me wanting to know who, what, where and when, It flared up Friday - I know - because I tore out of work expecting them to close the roads. I HAD to get home :( The fear was so real I could taste it.
You/me and most of Melbourne were 15' and 15minutes from being burnt, I watched the change from here.
As for morons and their fireworks? They think they ae special, they think the rules don't apply to them, they don't/can't associate the fear of fireworks = fear of death for some people on dry days.
It's city V country, that's the only thing I can think of
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