bushfire - view at the moment

Posted by Kathryn (Warburton, Australia) on 13 February 2009 in Documentary & Street.

Hey guys. The situation had been up and down again over the last 24 hours and i think for me reality is beginning to sink in now - the reality that the 'threat' of a 'fire threat' won't be over for a very long time to come and this knowledge is leaving me quite emotionally and mentally tired sometimes. I know that we have been so so lucky so far considering what has happened in other areas but for me personally, in my immediate situation, the constant knowledge that the fire will probably at some point come over these mountains and that it may be just a matter of when, is just wearing me down somewhat. We either need a long long period of no wind which would allow the firefighters to complete the mammoth effect of contructing literally hundreds of kilometres of firebreaks and containment lines that will then HOPEFULLY halt the fires' spread and make them burn back on themselves until there is nothing left to burn, or the other solution is rain and lots and lots and lots of it. Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios look very likely at the moment but hopefully nature will be kind to us soon! we just have to take it one day at a time!

I don't really have an image at the moment that i feel much like posting but i wanted to post anyway just to let you know that me and my town (which you can see part of on the bottom right of the image) are still ok. It is actually such a nice day with the beautiful warm sun complementing the cool breeze. The smoke coming over the mountains we think is probably from the massive back-burning effort that the DSE, CFA and many other emergency services are trying to complete before the wind changes and comes from the north thereby more than likely pushing the fire front this way over the mountains. But we just don't know when this might/will happen...

Last night we had a huge TV telethon which was not only fantastic to watch but wonderful in that it increased the Red Cross Appeal Fund considerably so that it is now somewhere around the $100 million aussie dollar mark - just unbelievable! Watching the telethon and other TV coverage during the day it is so nice to see the national and international support and concern. NZ, Canada and the US are all sending over firefighting crews that, working with the members of the Australian Army, will be able to relieve some of our utterly and beyond exhausted emergency services officers and volunteers that have been continuing to do the most amazing and wonderful work over the last week despite the fact that many of them have lots their own homes, friends and/or family or otherwise have been struggling with what comes from being the first people into a disaster zone and witnessing that kind of a scene. I can not possibly express how much admiration and gratitude i hold for these true heroes!

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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