To ask you to pray for the thousands of people trapped on a beach by fires in Victoria?

[TheClaws]

There are 4000 people from the town of Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, that is currently being destroyed by fire. They most likely won’t have homes to return to. They all have life jackets on ready to take shelter in the water as embers rain down upon them. Fire personnel have just - as I post - told them to get in the water. Can you imagine how they must feel?

Australia at the moment is burning across 4 states. Where I am it is 45c and the smell of smoke is heavy. It is a terrible summer for us.

Warnings were in place the week before Xmas. (After NSW declared a state of emergency)

Considering to get down to the south coast if you left near to Xmas you had to go down to Canberra from Sydney and around because the princes highway was closed (family friends property was threatened in Bawley point before Xmas.)

Fucking hell just read 500 million animals have died in this

They could ease the gridlock if they did some controlled double lane use along some stretches with hard shoulders.

The thing about minimising, and saying it's all normal for Australia, is that it takes longer for everyone to take it seriously.

It's also very hard to visualise if you haven't seen it before. Until the last week or so, most people would've thought "we have a plan if we have to leave", thinking they'd have some kind of sign.. as if a fire appears at the end of the road and proceeds in an orderly fashion that you can assess and by the time it gets to no.27, you can make sure everyone and the rabbit are in the car.

People also don't understand the impact of wind changes, and infrastructure/ roads. They've also been told for the last 8 years that anyone taking this seriously is a looney left etc. etc.. and of course there will always be those who think they can stay and fight. Or they once did scouting so they know about the bush.

Time for victim blaming after they're all out and safe, if you feel you have to.

Time for victim blaming after they're all out and safe, if you feel you have to

No blame, just that trying to get tourists out at the same time as evacuating locals makes the job that much harder.

It must be incredibly frustrating and frightening for everyone, tourist or local.

Journalist travelling between Cooma and Bega tweeted that "I saw one police car the entire trip. I think people are going to be stuck on the mountain all night tonight trying to get home. It strikes me as crazy. You tell an entire coastline to evacuate by one mountain road with next to zero traffic management."

Janeskettle, Australians are liked in the UK, but “out of sight, out of mind”. The present crisis has horrified everyone. I’m telling everyone i know about the fundraising appeals. I hear nothing but sympathy — including shock at the Aus government’s slow response, and that’s from people who despair of our own UK politicians. Thoughts and prayers with everyone caught up in this nightmare.

I’m telling everyone i know about the fundraising appeals

That's so kind; thank you Thinking

Today’s running blog / news commentary about what’s happening (info from various sources collated):

www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-02/nsw-vic-bushfires-updates-live-blog-emergency-updates/11836624

This is a good article on fires and climate change. blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/australias-angry-summer-this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=organic&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=SciAm_&sf227166208=1
I'm in the surreal position of currently having a beach holiday in the part of Victoria that isn't on fire. Of course keeping a close eye but surrounded by people swimming and generally enjoying themselves.

These fires are unprecedented.

So actually, from that quote, it's less about naive tourists, and more about resources.

I have family in the leave zone who can't be convinced to leave. :(

Oh NotYourTypicalNerd that’s got to be so hard . What can you do except send prayers / good vibes and just hope they’re ok in the end, or hope they change their minds soon.

Do you know why they don’t want to leave?

Is this Australian government really just leaving it up to volunteers to sort these fires out?

Yes and no
the rural service has ALWAYS been volunteer. Volunteer pools have dropped by 18.000 in the last decade for many reasons, bullying culture, people cant afford to, people age out physically and people my age move away or simply dont sign up. They have to fundraise just to buy or fix equipment
I know many who wont volunteer simply for these reasons.

But it shouldnt be, the cities have a supplied and funded fire service and we should have the same out bush. At very very least much more funding.

Prayer brings comfort - to those who and prayed for, knowing that they aren't forgotten, and to those who pray, who feel that God is giving strength and courage and Divine support to those who are struggling and suffering

What crap. Prayers are simply for the person making them, giving them good feelies.
The amount of times people said prayers for my mother was disgusting.
Did it save her? no. Did it make us feel better? No
Was practical support offered? No, that came from people who never said a single prayer
Prayer was nothing but meaningless words

Thoughts and prayers given to school shooting victims in the US, did it save them? no
Did it stop the shootings? No
Did it make religious people feel good? yes and thats all it did, make people who were unaffected feel better

Has it stopped these fires? No
Does it rebuild towns? No
So what good does it do?

I really wish people would stop focusing on the word ‘prayer’. If I could take it back, I would. Please. Try not to bicker over a word.

I'm sorry TheClaws that a nice thread about keeping in mind people suffering in awful conditions was basically hijacked by people who object to prayer.

MY friend who is in the fire area expected to be impacted this Saturday would appreciate continuing prayers, if anyone is so minded, especially prayers for the safety of her two firey sons.

Cheers Janes

Och don't be such a moron @squeekums. It's basically saying "you are in our thoughts". We can't do anything practical here in the UK yeh? Op just wanted some hand holding...

TheClaws, some threads on MN seem to bring out the worst in people. You've done nothing wrong and if prayers bring you and others comfort then no one has the right to judge or say you are wrong. I'm not religious but I'm pretty sure that if I was in Australia right now I would be praying to every god I could think of.

Stay safe

I think it's very odd that people are caring about the word prayers.
When people say that they're not saying you have to pray (obviously) they just want you to think of them and send some support if prayers aren't your thing. I would have thought that's obvious?

I've drifted off this thread for updates because everytime I've checked it some humpty is objecting to prayers or good wishes or something else
GO START ANOTHER THREAD
Mallacoota is finally starting to be evacuated
The highways are blocked in other areas
People don't have access to fuel to flee
Money must be tight for some and people are objecting to fundraising to help them
It's bonkers and some people need to give their head a shake

yeah it is pretty obvious purple some people just want to be pedantic arses though. For reasons best known to themselves.

I have not heard from one of my friends for a week. Just got word that she is fine but she is assuming her house has gone. She, her DH and their two DDs and dogs got out I believe. She is a CFA volunteer herself and has been for decades.

I can't tell you how upsetting some of the posts on this thread have been for me. You have people calling Australians stupid and crass (now deleted thankfully). You have nit picking over words like 'prayers'.

Could we not just keep everyone- including the animals, the horror of which is unprecedented- affected in our thoughts? And express this in a gracious and generous way? Most people on this thread have, I know, but I find some of the posts to be insensitive, and distressing.

sorry- the stupid and crass comments that were deleted was on another thread. Apologies.

I can't imagine trying to evacuate an entire coastline of people! Do they ever 'reverse the flow' and stop the 'incoming' traffic and use both sides of the highway to get people out? I'm in the US and that's what they do to evacuate people from natural disasters here.

I superimposed a fire map of Aus over the Continental US (about the same size) and it took my breath away, the number of fires spread throughout the country. We're (unfortunately) used to seeing multiple fires on the western side of the country, but the mid-west and eastern side normally are pretty untouched.

I will keep praying for you all, since there's not much else I can do from here.