Whilst I worked, until 2013, we used to donate to the NSW Rural Fire Service. But it has become much harder for us to do so, now that I'm retired, with growing health expenditure to cope with. Given that many, if not most, of those firefighters are volunteers, & not usually the regular, government-funded, district fire brigades, it is really good to hear of your compatriot's positive opinion of them. We have had plenty of experiences of horrific bushfire episodes, right across Australia, not only here on the eastern seaboard, deep into the Great Dividing Range, but also elsewhere, around Adelaide, & even in Tasmania & Perth.
But this particular episode was by far the most horrific I've known in my life time, even though at the beginning of 1994, bushfires ringed the Metropolitan area of Sydney, including suburbs like Jannali, in the south, Roseville in the north, or Springwood, relatively close where I live. Both then & later in October, 2013, they were visible from my front windows. It was due to the 1994 bushfires, & their outcome, that a film called
The man who sued God was made, starring the Scottish comedian, Billy Connelly.
This summer, starting up across the Queensland Border, the bushfires spread the full length of New South Wales' coastline, especially around Myall Creek & Port Macquarie, right down past Mallacoota to Omeo, & then across to Kangaroo Island. A bit in area if you superimposed Brisbane on a map of North America to align with the St Lawrence River, down as far south as North Carolina or give or take, in a patchy sort of way. The bushfire smoke persisted for months, leaving Sydney's metropolitan area, though bypassed, itself, looking & smelling like a somewhat too realistic impersonation of Dante's Inferno, set to Vivaldi's accompanying music (Dance of the Furies?). A friend at church found airborne embers in her garden, whilst several times I found drops of pink-coloured fire retardant decorating our garbage lids, from returning helicopters & planes. Charn-ish is the nearest I could get to it without upsetting our moderators.
In this Black Summer, it was all hands to the deck, including the Governor-General, David Hurley, himself, & various ranks of politicians, both State & Federal, from both sides of Parliament. Star sports players, whatever their code of football, were out there, fighting the flames. Even the Australian Army was called in, in such an emergency, as was right & proper. No wonder civilians are so grateful for the help other nations, such as Japan & Singapore, not only USA, Canada, Papua Niugini & New Zealand, traditional allies, also sent to us.
We have had a bit of continuing rain, including overnight showers. At least some of the inland rivers are actually running free, thanks to runoff from the Queensland monsoons, though dams like Burrendong Dam, are still at pathetically low levels, like 6% full. It is good to see that all is well, weatherwise, in the north of USA. However, those Tennessee tornados seemed a most terrible catastrophe, especially as they happened in the middle of the night.
Stargazer, is that normal for tornados? Generally they seem to happen in afternoons, rather than at night. Or do they? Meanwhile, I do love your avatar,
Stargazer. If groundhogs aren't meteorologists then neither are the rather similar-looking possums or meerkats.