eye-witnessed
bushfire #3
Posted by Kathryn (Warburton, Australia) on 9 February 2009 in Documentary & Street.
Thank you all again for all of you well wishes over the last couple of days. Taken on Saturday from my house, this is the storm cloud created by many enormous plumes of smoke just to the north of us and which was so intense that it created its own thunder and lightning storm that in turn inevitably sparked more fires as the lightning hit areas of tinder-dry bushland. We were informed that one of these fires directly threatened our town during Saturday night but thankfully now the situation has gotten better - we are still on alert as at least 3 fires are burning in relatively close proximity but at the moment we are still safe until the winds pick up again. Compared to this image our sky is remarkably better today with the blue sky above appearing a lot clearer despite the still quite constant amount of smoke still in the air and the sunlight having a red tone.
The situation in many many other areas of the state is unfortunately not so good - massive firefronts (including new fronts sparked by lightning) still threaten many communities in the north, north-east and southern areas of the state as well as in many other places. The official death toll, the last i heard was up to 126 confirmed but with many many other people still missing especially in the inaccessible areas still burning or isolated. Officially this is the worst natural disaster Australia has ever experienced.
Chris Parr requested i post some reputable websites on which donations could be made - two of the largest of the many appeals/funds that have been set up to help the victims of this disaster are the Red Cross - Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal and the Salvation Army's Bushfire Relief Appeal (make sure to include to Victorian Bushfire Relief Appeal in the comments field so that they know where the money is aimed). Thanks again for all of your wonderful comments over the last few days - sorry if i have brought a downer to you all in some of my replies but it has been nice to have this blog to keep me occupied.
Thank you all so much for your lovely encouraging comments. I am getting quite busy and am finding that i don't have a lot of time for both photography and maintaining this blog as much as i would like to so i probably won't be able to reply to each and every comment from now on but i promise i will eventually get around to visiting your blog! Happy snapping everybody!
Kaha the Kiwi has set off again on his journey around the world to see all of his AM3 friends. Keep up to date with his adventures on his own blog here. Safe travels Kaha and i hope you have a ton of fun!
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Pentax K100D
1/90 second
F/8.0
ISO 400
27 mm (35mm equiv.)