208 houses lost

[[Pi...]]

I'll have a cup hashy! Lol

[[Ha...]]

*pours Pinky a cup*

 

Now watch the gold chips! 

[Guest [Ob...]]

An entire town just west of me was wiped off the map by a flood this spring. We also get tornadoes and I watched one pick up a steel building on my farm and twist the 1/4 inch steel I-beams in it like wet spaghetti. At least three times a summer we have to hunker in the concrete storage cellar until the tornado danger passes. I have a deep respect for the power of Mother Nature (although 'Mother Nature' is not what I call her when she behaves like this) 

[[ar...]]

Hi Hashy ,

 

Hope news will be better this morning, it is anxiety provoking, watching it all on TV. Apparently a fortune was donated to the Victorian fire victims and some actually ended up with much better houses, or hobby farms than the ones that were burnt down.

 

Had you heard of an artist / musician Lewis who owned a guitar shop in Katoomba? Lewis actually died a few weeks ago at 59.

I never did make it up to the Blackheath Philosophy talks. Are you Swedish or just into herbal teas?

 

We live in Dario in a terrace & run an airbnb, though H. was a computer programmer.

Ara. 

Ooh temperatures for today 90 plus F. and only spring, all trees flowering too early

[[Ha...]]

Hi arafura,

 

It is going to be hot today.. 31°C predicted for Sydney, but Penrith will be 38°C.. Which means it will not get much cooler then that where I am. Katoomba will be more like 30°C.

 

Right now it is very smokey here where I am. I believe that is from the backburns. Still, this is the smokiest it has been right here since this all began.

 

For those who do not know, there are two kinds of burns that are initiated by our Rural Fire Service:

 

 

Hazard Reduction Burn - These burns are done before there is any threat of out of control fires. They create breaks in the bushland, impeding the spread of the wild bushfires.

 

Backburn - A backburn is what is done as a stopgap measure, during an actual emergency situation, such as right now.

 

These two terms are often confused by people ( most often people call A HRB a backburn, not knowing the difference.)

 

 

Today the wind is going to kick up somewhat..  15-25km/h  from the North West, which will push the State Mine Fire down across the Grose Valley, and onto the North face of the City of the Blue Mountains. The wind is predicted to increase again later in the afternoon, upto the 20-30km/h range, and coming from teh North East.

 

I try and say the "City" of the Blue Mountains, as this is where most of the people live up here. This entire region is called the Blue Mountains National Park, and then running through this, is us, the City. We have about 80,000+ people living up here.

The "City", which is really a string of townships based off of the Great Western Highway, which crosses this Mountain range, is a collection of communities of Low Density developments. We are surrounded by dense bushland, and the majority of the townships are built ontop of the mountain ridges, there are few dwellings down in the gullys.

[[ar...]]

Hi Hashy ,

 

Yes you sure know the terminology, a friend has a couple of houses overlooking the Jamison valley . Yes saw hotter in 30's Celsius, (F is  for our American readers). Still talking about fires merging &  more evacuations of suburbs along Great Western Highway. Years ago I used to stay at the Ritz hotel Leura, now a retirement home I believe .

I am frightened of bushland now .

 

Arafura

[[Ha...]]

I still love the bush.. Always will.. This is the trade off for being able to live in such a beautiful place.

 

Still quiet here this morning.. Smokey... Just.. Quiet at the moment.. The sirens and choppers will probably start up this arvo once the wind kicks in.

 

They're recommending that people in the at risk townships, mine included, that if we don't "need" to be here for Tuesday/Wednesday.. That we should leave in advance, and not wait until the last moment.

 

Latest fire update live now. I will write back soon.

[[Ha...]]

58 fires statewide, 14 are uncontained, the worst fires being the ones here in the Blue Mountains, and the massive blaze in Newnes.

 

Today is expected to be the hottest day over the next 3 high risk fire days.

 

Winds expected to peak at 30-50km/h, gusting at 80-100km/h by Wednesday/

 

Wednesday will be Severe fire danger, and even upto Extreme for parts of Greater Sydney (the highest level is now "Catastrophic", above Extreme).

 

There are atleast 10-15km of backburns progressing along Bells Line (of) Road.

 

The firefront itself along the north of Bells Line is 50kilometres long.

 

There are been minimal reports of looting in the burnt out areas.

 

Two Air-Cranes (Erickson S-64 Air-Crane Helitankers) have been deployed in the region, the second was deployed on Saturday, and there are a total of 70 aircraft participating in activities during these fires (likely a combination of water bombers, and observation aircraft)

 

 

 

[[ar...]]

Take care Hashy, fire can move so fast, I'm watching Al Jazzera TV a bit now. Sky looking quite hazy from our terrace house balcony, normally clear, glad my asthmatic son has moved to Melbourne.

 

Arafura ,( It's mentioned on Al Jazz TV though.)

[[Ha...]]

Thanks Arafura

 

Damn fires can move as fast as you can drive away from them.

 

 

Have heard a few choppers fly over so far. Not sure of their intended destination.

[[Pi...]]

Hey hashi. The wind has kept away so far, that's good hey. We are cleaning gutters today. Not much we can do if it all takes off though.

                I wouldn't like to live with tornados like u obsid! That would be just too scary. So hit and miss!

                I think my w/ds are a bit revved up today. The pins and needles are extreme. I can not turn my mind off. Funny thing is , it's not me that I am worrying for.

It is the others who are in shelters. And those in the direct line.

                  Lotsa luv to all of u and big hugs hashi. Good job on the fire reports!      Pinkee

[[Bi...]]

My home burned to the ground in 1998 so I know their pain.  In fact my life has been nothing but pain of the last 15 years.  At least benzo's showed me that Health is the real Wealth.

 

[[Ha...]]

*biiig hugs birdman*

 

Too right there!! Benzos taught me the same about health. I just gotta wrangle in my bad eating habits now, and get my exercise back and it will be fine.

Stopping smoking almost a year ago now also drilled that into me..  Although, right now my brain keeps trying to trick me and say "its smokey enough.. Just have a cigarette.. Won't make a difference"

And im all like.. nahhhh bullsh!t... hah

 

Where was that 1998 fire Birdman?

 

The house numbers have been revised up just a tad, its actually 210 homes.. After the next 3 days.. Who knows.. Wednesday is gonna be the killer.

 

It will be likely that we will be evacuating tomorrow, if not tonight.. It will be better to be out of harms way sooner, rather then waiting until the last moment and then being trapped, especially if they close off the highway.

 

Those tornadoes do sound scarey Obsid!

 

Natural disasters... Always gonna be something, somewhere.

 

Good luck up there Pinkee, I wish I could come up and help!  I just cleared out our drains.. They were overlooked and full of leaves, but they were fixed now.. These are the drain trenches we have in the ground along the front of our house, under grates... The guttering was cleared, but the trenches were overlook... Gotta be thorough sometimes.

 

I know prepartion should have been done months ago.. Unfortunately, benzo withdrawal made me not give much of a crap about anything. I did do a small amount of prep back then, but theres always more, and with the winds weve had lately, thats just dropped more leaves all over the place... Really gotta keep ontop of things! We only take these things seriously when something like this happens.

 

 

As of the moment, the winds have not kicked back up yet, atleast for the Lower Mountains.

 

The news has just made reports of an 11 year old boy being arrested for starting a fire aswell.... sigh....

[[Ha...]]

75,000 people live here in the Blue Mountains. Abit less then I thought earlier.

There are over 33,000 homes up here aswell...

 

Latest news reports of the main fires, have their speed picking up now relative to this morning... It's hot to.

 

The backburns over night have been reasonably successful, and should (fingers crossed) provide some better control and containment of the fire.

 

Getting to the point where I have to begin keeping very alert outside.

 

Soon enough we will be at the threat of ember attack.. The embers from a fire can leap ahead kilometres, and fires from those can flare up out of control in as little as 30 seconds, especially with the dry ground that we have right now... No rain.. No rain...

[[Pi...]]

Well, we are still waiting. So far no wind. That is going to be the worst enemy of the fires. We are like frozen rabbits in headlights!  The suspense is exhausting. Certainly revving up my w/ds.

        I can't. Even think to type. My brain is mushy.... Foggy.

  For whoever reads this , I hope u are all coping with your own journeys. I send luv and hugs to u all .

      Pinkee

[[Ha...]]

*hugs you Pinkee*

 

I know we're all tired from this, and the firies are becoming exhausted after 5 days now of this stuff.

 

Too tired, just too tired..!

 

Different towns are having their community meetings and updates... My town is having ours tomorrow night, which I intend to make and hear what they have to say... Hopefully that the backburns were successful and will help control the fires...

 

All this is just too much.. A constant dose of adrenaline all day.. Gotta remember to take time for breaks!!

 

Time for sleep really.. Another day down.. No more homes or lives lost that we know of.. So we goto sleep knowing these good things..

 

One day.. One hour.. One minute at a time!

 

Peace all.

[[Ha...]]

Hey All...

 

Abit of the latest.

 

The are some storms moving through, bringing some water.. However so far none of it has reached here.. Fingers crossed some will come and atleast dampen things a little!

 

We are about 24hours away from the weather kicking upto the worst of the predicted conditions. I would see this as consistent with the weather we have had over the past couple of months. About every week we get a series of strong winds coming through, and then it dies down again for a week, maybe two. The previous was Thursday last week, when this all began.

 

The rains that are moving through are not going to bring much rain anyway, we will be lucky to get 1mm of water, which again is consistent with the weather we have had;

There have been only two falls of rain in the last 3 months that I can recall, and each brought very little.

 

The backburns in my area were indeed successful over the past couple of days.. These should provide abit of a break. I will find out all of the details at tonights town meeting.

 

So today kind of feels like a lull.. It's cloudy, it's cool.. But again, like the past couple of days, it's like the calm before the storm we know is coming.. The firies have been doing all they can to prepare with backburns, and consistent water bombings of the larger blazes..

 

It's all just so much.. Have to keep ontop of everything!

 

Will write up more later..

 

Peace.

[[Pi...]]

Hang in there hashy! Tomorrow is D day! Take care and be safe!

              Many hugs.      Pinkee

[[Mo...]]

i watched it on the news last night. its so  awful and sad. i have great compassion

with the people living in that area. sorry Australia.

[[Ha...]]

We are planning to evacuate tomorrow morning.

 

The Rural Fire Service has recommended to evacuate before 9am to avoid congested roads, and if it becomes congested, that will give people enough time to get out before the predicted weather change around midday.

 

My father refuses to leave, and many other stubborn misguided people of his age will refuse to go, thinking they can make a difference with no resources. The Fire Brigade is alreadly completely occupied, and they will most likely not be able to provide support tomorrow to anybody down here. It is very distressing...

In the past people were allowed to stay and defend their homes, and even now it is still allowed until the RFS and Police order an evacuation. However these older people do not fully realize how much things have changed with the environment, and how dangerous this fire really is..

 

It is all very distressing, so many people here will be leaving tomorrow, including myself and my mother.

 

Anybody else staying here who thinks they're doing good trying to play here, is an absolutely f**king twit, and putting their lives at serious risk needlessly.

 

The fire authorities themselves know how dangerous things are.. Their breathing aparatus' are BARELY adequate.. The people staying and defending run the serious risk of suffocating to death.

 

 

Hopes and prays for us... That is all anybody can ever do now.

 

I will make a few more updates hopefully before we leave tomorrow.. If possible..!

[[Pi...]]

Ohh dear! Sorry hashy! Your dad is not budging hey? Well u and your mum have the right attitude. I'm sorry he feels he has to stay, it's a worry for u .

        Please be safe dear hashy! I really feel so much for all of u!

          Hugs n luv.  N positive thoughts be with u  Pinkee

          Xoxo

[[Ha...]]

Thanks Pinkee, you're a dear!!

 

Tomorrow we will see about everything.. We will see..

 

From now, I am switching to positive attitude mode.. Realism is good, but not helping me right now.

 

Peace and love for all  

[[Pi...]]

Don't forget to breathe. Stressful as this is , please remember to breathe and try to centre yourself.

    U can do this hashy!      Moment by moment.    I am here for u . We all are!   

  Much luv and hugs.      Pinkee xoxoxo

[[Ha...]]

Will be okay Pinkee!

 

Will be leaving within the next 2 hours...... Fire danger is currently at "Extreme", which is the second highest fire danger rating, and used to be the higher, until they changed the system and made the highest rating "Catatrophic"... It sounds scarey I know.. But they did that for a reason, because that is what it is quiet simply.. There has been no talk of it reaching that scale later today.. But in so many ways, it was implied...

 

Soo yeah.. I will try and check in later today if possible! Once we are out of harms way and settled in somewhere, I plan on sleeping.. ALOT.. lol

 

Peace out all.. Best of luck too anybody else in the firing line here.

 

Ciao.

 

[[Li...]]

Good luck Hashy and stay safe. We're here to support you and anybody else who is going through this horrible situation.