Been quiet lately as we are still ringed with the out of control fires all around us and have been now for a long time (Currawan and Tianjara fires).
But thought we were really stuffed today. Woke up to extremely thick smoke.
First photo was at the front of our house over our boat looking Nor’west at 1.00pm, burnt leaves and ash were just raining down everywhere.
Second photo was around 3.00pm things had gotten progressively worse, ember attacks were coming down at Fishermans Paradise just North of us around 2k as the crow flies, then we got the SMS message from the Rural Fire Service that it was too late to leave and seek shelter as the fire hits. Exit roads were closed because of the fire leaping across to the North.
Around 3.30pm or so we were saved today by the Southerly which pushed the fires away from us and to our North, whilst it was a stroke of fortune for us, it wasn't for others and homes were lost.
Not sure what the next couple of days will be like, the whole sky behind, to the West on the mountains and to the North is all a glow tonight.
It was around 42°C today and these fires have so far burnt out millions of hectares of forest with no end it sight. The devastation is unbelievable. Around 700 homes have been lost now and two volunteer fire fighters have lost their lives. We have fire fighters now from the U.S, Canada and New Zealand helping our crews.
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Oh My....you folks have been enduring this for quite awhile, keep safe (as safe as you can) I really cant comprehend the scale of this & certainly am worried about you folks. thanks for the update Jim.
Jim - have been seeing this on the news / weather channel. Loss of life and property has been staggering. Hang in there!
This just keeps going on and on. I don't know how your nerves are holding through this long drawn out terror, but rest assured we are all holding our best thoughts for you, your family, neighbors and countrymen!
Keep vigilant my friend!!!
Sorry to see this continuing - my prayers are for you and your family to stay strong and safe until this ends.
Not good there Jim
I have been following it and the scale is just incomprehensible .
My biggest concern is it is only December and February tends to be the hottest/ driest month.
Mind you by time February gets here there will be nothing left burn.
Other end of scale here
Over 40 mm of rain here the thursday/friday
Gale force winds on Thursday bringing down trees and big branches
Snow on hills Friday night and a frost on the ground this morning .
I have photos on my phone of your smoke over here a couple of weeks ago,.
Take care
Dennis
Constantly thinking of you and your's, Jim.
Worrying for all of your neighbours and countrymen.
So tragic......
Hang in there, Jim!
You will pull through.
Best of luck Jim. Please stay in touch with us.
Just horrible Jim.
You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Keep the Faith!
Bonjour,
So scary... and so sad for all the people involved in this disaster. As it never happened before, who could have imagined a prevention.
Your prime minister had a good idea, all of you could go on holidays in Hawaï...
I saw where your PM got the thumbs down for being in Hawaii...
G’day all,
Sorry all, its been a shit show here. The NBN (our internet (regardless of ISP) went down and all mobile phones for most of yesterday (We have hardly any copper land lines any more working in our area, all voip and mobile) I don’t know if that was very good idea from the govt after being totally in the dark and not knowing what was going on, it was frightening being in the dark. We didn’t have even a transistor radio or any radio that we could use, that’s now rectified. Power was also lost. They had crews out pretty fast to repair power lines, and the NBN and mobile phones are back up working off a massive generator that they trucked in.
The smoke was choking thick this morning, thankfully lightened with onshore ocean breezes a bit now. We still have fires (we are right on the coast) to our south, west and north burning out of control. We have been blessed that we haven’t had the Westerly winds that took the fire to all the villages south of us and only stopped when it hit the ocean. Just got to keep hoping the winds are good to us.
So many people we know have lost so much now, lost their homes and everything they own. The helos and planes are still working to our south west around 5klms away and to our north about 2klms away. They also have a lot of huge bulldozers trying to cut firebreaks as quickly as possible with the better conditions today before the weather deteriorates again to hot and stronger winds at the end of the week and weekend.
The highway was closed for hours yesterday, but thankfully hasn’t been today. The RFS are saying that it will be likely shut again towards the end of the week when conditions deteriorate again.
The damage wrought has been on an unimaginable scale, its burnt from Bateman's Bay in the South to Nowra in the North and is just getting bigger and wider every day.. I can't even let myself think of what the wildlife catastrophe has been, let alone the loss of some peoples lives. It's Christmas Eve here, but hardly feels like it. Just in my state of New South Wales the news said this morning that nearly 1000 homes have been lost the RFS said an additional 2,048 outbuildings and 68 facilities were levelled by the blazes.
Really appreciate the kind thoughts all. I still am hopeful that we will get out of this with our home intact.
We have our survival plan if worse comes to worse, so our personal safety should be assured.
Just the fires around us have burnt out around 800,000 acres.
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Just to show the impact on the whole coast of New South Wales, here are the four (4) megafires that are burning out of control.
We are the one at the bottom of the image. As I said earlier the damage and ongoing destruction has been on an unimaginable scale and nothing will put these out until we have drought breaking rain that's not forecast till the end of January or sometime in February.
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Thanks all, so appreciate the concern shown by all my friends. And again, I really think that we have everything prepared to save our home and also be safe. Sorry for waffling on, I hope all the above makes some sort of sense.
To all, Jenny and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your families. Our two sons and their families will be here all day tomorrow and we are so looking forward to Christmas. This disaster has made for a very cohesive community spirit as what does happen often in emergencies.
Kindest thoughts to you all and thanks one and all for being great mate!
Ang & I are so very glad you & your family's homes have been spared so far, I pray for a continued hedge of protection around all of you still, & the Merriest of Christmas's that this season can bring to you. (thanks for the update Jim)
I can’t even begin to imagine the immense pressure your under Jim, the wife & I are praying that your family and property will escape this tragedy.