Dear Mr Morrison

[adidas]

Our smoke has travelled over 12000km east and is now in the skies of South America  

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/nasas-terra-satellite-sees-fire-and-smoke-from-devastating-bushfires-in-australia

There’s an article on Daily Mail as well, if you want more details. 

[GreyhoundFan]

One woman came up with a fundraiser. Possibly NSFW under spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

[Ozlsn]

There's so much smoke that Melbourne looks like Mordor.

Meanwhile it's so bad in Canberra that the Emergency Management agency closed yesterday. Presumably they are working from home or somewhere (you'd hope - I know quite a few staff from other federal government departments are.) 

[Smee]

I don’t know if there’s a thread for the fires generally or this is it - but I wanted to draw attention to the #authorsforfireys fundraiser on twitter this week. Using the hashtag #AuthorsForFireys we’re offering up various stuff that people then bid on (in AUD), the highest bidder donates to the CFA in Victoria, sends the author proof of their donation, and gets the goodies. Some of course are Australia-only (e.g. school workshops or author talks and book club visits, for obvious reasons) while others are open to international bidders. There’s manuscript assessments, signed copies of books, opportunities to name characters or have a cameo role in their next story etc, and everyone from hardly-known writers  in small presses to Australia’s big success stories like the Moriarty sisters, Andy Griffiths, Trent Dalton etc. 

Info from organiser and YA author Emily Gale here: https://twitter.com/emilygale/status/1213560046308585472?s=21

My personal offer is here if anyone is interested: https://twitter.com/reidwriting/status/1213958741218824192?s=21

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[adidas]

I can’t stop crying. My friends lost their family home yesterday. Waking up to new devastation every morning ... when will it end?

[Someone Out There]

9 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

Meanwhile it's so bad in Canberra that the Emergency Management agency closed yesterday. Presumably they are working from home or somewhere (you'd hope - I know quite a few staff from other federal government departments are.) 

Yesterday and Today haven't been too bad in Canberra (so far anyway, I understand the smoke is expected to roll in again today).  However I went to Bunnings on Sunday and you could see the smoke inside there.  When we went to work last Thursday we were sent home in the morning as you could smell it in the building.  At work before Christmas (and essentially before the Dunn's Road fire started) the main gripe was that the smoke was coming in with the cool change in the evening so we couldn't do the standard Canberra thing of opening the windows at night to cool the house down unless you wanted to smell smoke.  After the Dunn's road fire started then we were getting smoke from most of the directions causing it to be hanging around all day.

@GreyhoundFan It should be noted that, that image is an artists impression of locations that have had fires rather than an actual image of the fires and their intensity.

[Katzchen24]

4 hours ago, adidas said:

I can’t stop crying. My friends lost their family home yesterday. Waking up to new devastation every morning ... when will it end?

I'm so sorry to hear this. If there is anything you or your friends need in support...... xx

 

[Ozlsn]

5 hours ago, adidas said:

I can’t stop crying. My friends lost their family home yesterday. Waking up to new devastation every morning ... when will it end?

I am so sorry. I have had to take breaks away from the coverage because it was overwhelming me. I hope your friends are safe, and that they are being supported right now. Take care of yourself too.

[fraurosena]

To put things in perspective. 

 

[Ozlsn]

In some good news the Mallacoota fire is offically out and the strike team (pictured) are heading home on HMAS choules.  

[adidas]

@Katzchen24 and @Ozlsn thanks ❤️

[Ozlsn]

Sitting on public transport watching the smoke roll back in and wondering how conditions are going around the current fires as the weather heats up again. 

Meanwhile ScoMo opened his mouth to change feet apparently.

Spoiler

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been corrected after saying it was lucky no one had lost their lives during devastating bushfires that ripped through South Australia's Kangaroo Island last week. 

Mr Morrison was visiting the bushfire-ravaged island where bush pilot Dick Lang and his son Clayton, a leading plastic surgeon in South Australia, died when they tried to return to a family property.

Speaking to locals on Wednesday, Mr Morrison made the slip-up. 

"Well, thankfully we've had no loss of life," he said.

When he was quickly corrected, he responded: "Yes two, that's quite right. I was thinking about firefighters firstly."

A spokesperson for the prime minister said they were discussing firefighting efforts at the time and he was referring to the fact that no firefighters had died on Kangaroo Island.

"He was aware of the two deaths and met with one of the relatives of those who were killed while on the island," the spokesperson said. 

It is the latest awkward moment for the prime minister whose leadership during the bushfire crisis has been questioned on social media.

Last week, he was forced to cut short a visit to Cobargo in NSW after residents in the bushfire-hit community yelled abuse at him. 

Mr Morrison was also seen grabbing the hand of a firefighter who declined to shake hands with him. 

Plea to holiday-makers

Mr Morrison used the visit to urge Australians with holiday bookings to give fire-affected tourism operators a break. 

One-third of the island has been burnt but the rest of it remains open for business.

"If you've booked accommodation and you're now seeking a refund, can you cut them a break in terms of, at the very least, on the timing of when you might expect to see a refund," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison spoke with Kangaroo Island residents affected by the fires before flagging mental health assistance as a priority in the relief effort.

Australian Defence Force psychologists have been deployed across the country to help victims in fire-ravaged areas.

The prime minister confirmed Health Minister Greg Hunt was working on a mental health package.

Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud and the head of the newly-established bushfire recovery agency, Andrew Colvin, are expected to visit Victorian fire-affected communities of Tumut and Sale on Thursday.

Mr Littleproud has indicated he'll announce a bushfire support package for small businesses, including interest-free loans of up to $500,000 that are repayment-free for two years.

Twenty-six people have been killed, millions of hectares have burned and thousands of homes destroyed this bushfire season.

Awkward.

Maybe not as awkward as his church's unfortunately named and timed event though:

Spoiler

Gotta admit it does make a change from the conspiracy theories apparently running riot on the internet about how the fires started. See? It's not the greenies/loggers/government/pick a minority group, any minority group after all!

And the government's proposed compensation package is apparently structured so almost no one can claim it. I wish I was more surprised by this, sigh.

Stay safe everyone. 

 

[Katzchen24]

27 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

Gotta admit it does make a change from the conspiracy theories apparently running riot on the internet about how the fires started. See? It's not the greenies/loggers/government/pick a minority group, any minority group after all!

And the government's proposed compensation package is apparently structured so almost no one can claim it. I wish I was more surprised by this, sigh.

I have a strong interest in Alex Jones, and heard about his take on the fires through FB and a podcast. You could actually hear the moment he switched from one shitty theory (it's summer in Australia, fires happen, what's the big deal?) to an even shittier theory (conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy). It was thanks to a woman FROM AUSTRALIA ringing in to tell him about them that he switched over. This makes me crazy angry.

As for our incompetent PM, I'm no longer surprised about anything he stuffs up. It also doesn't surprise me that he would launch a recovery program no-one can claim from. Without putting down the contributors of donations in any way, I'm angry that our Government is willing to rely on the generosity of others to supply the needs of those affected just so they can preserve their surplus. This also makes me crazy angry.

Where is Dutton BTW? Not that I want him doing anything, I just feel its always good to know where the evil is, just to keep an eye on it.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Katzchen24
I was trying to decide how rude about Dutton I should be

[SpaceJunk]

On 1/9/2020 at 7:31 PM, Katzchen24 said:

Where is Dutton BTW? Not that I want him doing anything, I just feel its always good to know where the evil is, just to keep an eye on it.

He has been busy referring a man who is out helping fight fires in Victoria to the AFP over his Indigenous identity 

Dutton refers matter of Bruce Pascoe's identity to Federal Police

Edited January 12, 2020 by SpaceJunk

[Katzchen24]

49 minutes ago, SpaceJunk said:

He has been busy referring a man who is out helping fight fires in Victoria to the AFP over his Indigenous identity 

Dutton refers matter of Bruce Pascoe's identity to Federal Police

Why am I not surprised?

[Ozlsn]

On 1/12/2020 at 7:47 PM, SpaceJunk said:

He has been busy referring a man who is out helping fight fires in Victoria to the AFP over his Indigenous identity 

Dutton refers matter of Bruce Pascoe's identity to Federal Police

I read the article and I'm still in wtf mode over it. I have no idea why this would even come under Dutton's remit. As for Cashman's suggestion of a register... there is so much wtaf going on in my head I don't know where to begin. 

On the positive side the Gospers Mountain fire is reportedly contained. At the moment there are "only" about 120 active fires going in NSW, Vic and SA, and they are predominantly in less populated areas. Personally I was shocked by footage of where the fire had burned up to on Mt Buffalo - by world standards it's a tiny mountain, but it's usually wetter and cooler up there. For the fire to reach the summit is just not something I would have expected.

I was in a cafe this afternoon in an outer suburb of Melbourne that backs on to bush and farmland. It was really noisy, and then we heard sirens. The whole cafe just went quiet as we all simultaneously looked to see the fire engine racing past and then grabbed our phones to check where it was going. Despite last week's rain it's still tinder dry and everyone's on edge.

[adidas]

IT IS RAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Ozlsn]

42 minutes ago, adidas said:

IT IS RAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Yay!!

We had thunderstorms come through yesterday, although not a lot of rain in East Gippsland apparently. I looked at my watch area on the emergency app and my current warnings were for air quality, beach closure, trees down, car accident, flooding... and bushfire. 'Straya.

[adidas]

I found this photo online. This place was on fire last week. We need so, so much more, but this is a wonderful start.

[fraurosena]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[Ozlsn]

It is amusing to watch our Beloved Leader trying to slowly pivot away from climate denial without annoying his major backers or appearing to do so.  His most recent effort though, seriously - "Hazard reduction burns are as important as reducing emissions, says PM". No one is saying hazard reduction isn't important (although there is some debate about how effective it is under extreme conditions.  You know, like the ones we just had, and the one on Black Saturday in 2009). But if we want to reduce the number of extreme condition days, then we absolutely have to address climate change, and as part of that look at reducing emissions.  Even members of his own party are getting frustrated at the denialism - not least I think because the NSW state Liberal party (quick note for non-Australians: the Liberals are our major conservative party, the Labor Party is our major leftish party.  There are others but they are the two main ones) are likely to be slammed if an election is due soon, not least because of the funding cuts to the NSW fire services.

Anyway, speaking of climate and changes - in the last week we have had RAIN!!  Across most of the major fire areas, thank God. We have also had giant hailstones and a major dust storm. As one of my friends said, this is starting to feel Biblical.  What's next, locusts and frogs? ... can we centre them on Parliament House in Canberra perhaps?

(Actually the first storm that came across where I was on Wednesday was kind of amusing.  I have four watch zones (areas of 30km around specific points) set up on the app.  Three out of four had 2 warnings and 2 incidents each.  The fourth had 3 warnings, and was up to over 1000 incidents, pretty much all flooding related, by the time I went to bed. My phone notifications were going insane.)

The rain has had some drawbacks - ash from bushfires washed into rivers has killed fish, and also the rain causes more landslides and falling tree hazards. It's always a mixed blessing - too much, too little, not at the right time, not in the right place.  But at the moment at least there are no emergency warnings across Australia, although there are still going fires in at least three states (and today is another warm day - hopefully not too bad though.)

Inside the spoiler - a link to a video of a SA fire crew driving out of the Kangaroo island fires.  It. Is. Insane.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa6o77ltr5U

There is so much clean up going on. There are areas with ghosts of trees burned into the ground. The summer is not yet over (although I am daring to hope that the worst is?) and the clean up and the rebuilding is in the very early stages.   Now if we can just get our politicians to focus on the legislation needed to attempt to mitigate some of the factors leading to these fires that would be bloody awesome.

[adidas]

Driving to the beach at Coffs and there is new growth from the fires, after the recent rain. Russell Crowe tweeted about it. 
 

Some parts of NSW have had more rain in the past week than they had on the entirety of 2019. The rain hasn’t been enough to lift water restrictions but some towns now have another 2 weeks of water before day zero hits.

https://mobile.twitter.com/russellcrowe/status/1219031928071843840?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-9913923173031021625.ampproject.net%2F2001071857360%2Fframe.html

[Ozlsn]

Some of the fires have flared up again, particularly in the south coast of NSW. The saddest news has been more deaths, including the three American crew members of a water bomber which crashed. We are so grateful for the overseas firefighters that come, the last thing anyone wants is any firefighters - or anyone actually - to die fighting fires. Canberra airport was briefly shut due to fire risk.

Meanwhile the RSPCA are asking for 120 volunteers to go to Kangaroo Island to feed wildlife.

@Smee thanks for posting about the auctions btw - I shared on various media and a couple of friends are very excited that they came in with winning bids. 

And meanwhile our grants process for sports grants turns out to be less independent than previously thought. *sigh*