Even The Best Laid Plans Can Fail

My father was trustee of the local cemetery. He took his position seriously, including preserving the towns’ history. So much so that long before the fires of Black Saturday destroyed the township of Marysville. He had copied the original burial records and distributed 3 copies through the township.

It was unthinkable that ALL the houses in Marysville would burn. Sure 50%-75% but not 99% of every building in the township destroyed beyond recognition.

These ledgers contained the memories of the township – dating back to the first settler, right back to the late 1800’s.

My mother and father knew that Marysville would burn eventually; it was only a matter of time. No-one could foresee the extent of the damage and the complete isolation the town faced that night.

That night saw the destruction of all 3 copies of the burial ledger. The original only survived because of my fathers tenacity and his knowledge that other people besides his wife were sheltering in his home, the home he saved from the fires. Only metres from the road where the fire crews were forced to retreat or die.

When it comes to precious things, be it paper or electronic media – the only message I can (and do) drum into people is many locations, many formats, it could be something like a blog that disappears (as happened to someone this week) to precious family photos, to something like a public document. You can never be too careful.

Take as many copies as you can, spread them world-wide. Keep them electronically, keep hard copies, keep copies on media back-ups. But make sure you don’t only rely on once source of back-up.

Same goes for passports and similar – send copies to a friend in a sealed envelope, with instructions that the envelope is only to be opened on your instruction or death. Send your wills, etc in the same fashion.

Until you have been faced with the utter total devastation bought about by these fires, you think it can't and won't happen to me. Fine you may never be affected by a fire of such force and destruction BUT................ you may lose you phone, your hard-drive may fail.

Here are two posts with similar messages on my other blog . I don't care where in the world you are - remember everything fails once, even the best laid plans.
Back Up, Did I say Back-Up?
How Safe is the Data in Your Safe?

The RECEIVED ONLY TXT Messages of Black Saturday

08.02.09 06.11hrs
Good to hear about your parents. From the Vic Roads Man, Number Declined

08.02.09 07.29hrs
Thanks for message. A (W’s daughter)

08.02.09 11.59hrs
Appreciate message: unable to contact W

09.02.09 10.03hrs
Hope mum and dad OK. My brother lost his home in Kinglake. GL

09.02.09 13.07hrs
Hey hope you and you family is okay. If you need anything let me know. I’m here to help

12.02.09 18.21hrs
Hi H, thank-you for getting D&M to visit R. She appreciates the visits so much.

12.02.09 18.34hrs
Thank-you so much from all our family. Our community will get through this because of the generosity of people such as yourself and your family. Keep me posted and good luck always.

And the First EVER TXT message sent out by Fire Authorities
02.03.09 15.21hrs
Extreme weather in Vic expect Mon night & Tues. High wind & fire risk. Listen to Local ABC Radio for emergency updates. Do not reply to this message

There were many more messages (32 in all) but they were obviously in reply to messages I sent out and they would make little sense because they are out of context.

That period of time for about 3 months was a blur – little existed in my life except work and struggling to cope with what I saw and what I did and the difference I supposedly made. I can’t believe that one person (me) made any difference, but apparently I did.

Stay safe this summer and remember don’t take life for granted – it has more value than money.

The Text messages of Black Saturday

For some reason - unknown to me - I have just checked my phone and found the saved messages I received that day and days afterward from people.

I'm going to publish them - of course without identifying information - but it might show people's feelings of the day - and that any news was good news until the inevitable phone.

The TEXT messages of Black Saturday

Loss of power in residential premises

We have all experienced the moments where the power flickers, this comes from the power being switched to one grid to another OR where there is a high wind and the lines overhead touch.

To lose power for an extended period of time is unusual for city residents. That means no air con for the hot days and often no heating for the cold days. That is one of the inconveniences. It might last for 1-2 hours. So no TV, no microwave, no general modern day type activities.

For 1-2 hours this is not a concern, for 5-6 hours or longer, it is of a slightly greater concern.

Some of the things that you may not be able to use:-
1. Telephone (elec handsets) – from the onset of power loss
2. Internet if PC based – from onset of power loss
3. Water (Shower, Toilet, Kitchen) – if you rely on tank water- from onset of power loss
4. No cooking, if you require electricity to cook – from onset of power loss
5. Roller Doors for garages and carports – from onset of power loss
6. Television – from onset of power outage
7. Air Conditioning/Heating – from onset of power outage
8. Alarm clocks – from onset of power outage
9. NO charging of iPods, phones etc – 12 hours after the fact, you will need to recharge
10. The freezer might actually start to dethaw – 12-24 hours after power outage
11. Lights – at nightfall

How to overcome such problems:-
Telephones – make sure you have a handset, even if not on display, that you can connect into the socket, that does not require 240v, problem solved
Internet – Tough – go without, replace getting your news updates with radio (battery operated of course)
Water – (for those of us on tank water) try and make sure you have the kettle full as a matter of habit and if feasible, set up a gravity feed line, (riser) only used in emergencies
Cooking – get the Gas BBQ out and cook the meat from the freezer, boil water, use your imagination
Roller Doors, make sure you understand the manual override and practice using it occasionally
Television – tough – refer internet solution
Air Conditioning – tough – get used to it
Heating – put on another jumper, if the heating requires an electric fan, turn off heating, or risk causing damage to heating appliance
Alarm Clocks – have a battery operated/wind up alarm clock as an emergency or go to bed early and catch up on some missed sleep
Chargers – tough – get used to it
Freezer – Cover the freezer with as many blankets as possible, making sure that you do not leave the premises whilst covered as the power MAY be restored and you could cause the freezer to overheat. In the meantime – eat the contents, at each meal.
Night – use candles – perhaps placed IN jars to prevent them causing a fire, or lanterns like those you use outside.

You can also stock up on canned and dry foods, makes life a little easier in these types of emergencies.

Some people are more prepared than others, simply because their work might require generators or similar, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be just as prepared without that sort of stuff.

Just because something has changed, doesn’t mean you can't change – as I state time and time again; The only person you can rely on is YOU.

Stay warm or cool – it’s not the end of the world, only a blip in the time-line.

How safe is the data in your safe?

Not very. Yup sounds like a contradiction – it is a contradiction. Safes are only for honest people, safes are only a place to store stuff that you don’t want anyone else to see. The sort of stuff I am talking about are the XXX rated videos of you with someone other than the person you are married to.

All safes have a fire rating, the best you can get without paying an arm and a leg (and I mean that literally) is four (4) hours, some cheaper safes are rated under that.

I’ve seen safes drilled, I’ve seen safes blown apart, I’ve seen safes burnt, I’ve seen safes look fine from the outside but when opened everything is either reduced to ashes or melted.

The polymer notes that are Australian Currency these days just melt when exposed to heat. The old paper money used to turn to char.

Don’t rely on a safe to protect your data, don’t rely on a safe to protect your wills, don’t rely on a safe to protect anything of value. Because it can’t when exposed to anything other than ‘normal’ trauma.

You’ll notice that since I started blogging, many of my blogs have been about the Black Saturday’s fires, that is because they are a big part of my life at the moment and will probably remain so for the rest of my life.

Someone was talking about data protection – computer hard drives and the like. They were saying move HD onto portable drive and just pull the drive and leave. Life is never that simple, life is never that easy. Trust me you don’t have time. Don’t rely on remembering – don’t rely on it won’t happen to you – don’t rely on off-site servers (Although better than nothing) Rely on friends and family outside the area and rely on duplicity.

I can’t be any straighter to the point – remember it may not be tomorrow, it may not be the day after, It may not be next year.

Don’t lose those precious family photos because you think you have plenty of time.

YOU DON’T HAVE ANY TIME. DO IT NOW.