A sad day

Some of you may be hearing about all the bush fires we are having right now.

Yesterday and Today have had the worst bush fires in many, many years. Over 105 people have died so far and over 600 houses lost.

I feel for these people. Fires are such a horrible thing to experience. We didn't even see our house burn down and it took a while to get over. I used to get into a panic when I saw black smoke in Geelong. I was always scared I would turn down our street and see the house in flames. These people are going through so much more. Possessions can be replaced lives cannot. But saying that, it is very hard to loose your home. It is like you have lost part of your identity. Mainly different objects that you relate to different memories.

If you think of it pray for Pete, Abby's fiance. He is out fighting the fires with the CFA. He was out almost all of last week and will be gone for most of this week.

You could also pray for our churches camp site. It is out in the bush, a place called Dixons Creek where one of the fires is. We two dorms, a hall, and a house on the site. It would be sad to loose it all.

You could also pray for our friend Brett who is a paramedic. He was called out yesterday to help with those who have been injured.

Most of all though pray for the rains to come, the winds to die down, and for the safety of the people near the fires.

Here are a few articles to read if you haven't seen any yet.

Article 1
Article 2
(just added) Article 3 (mentions Dixon's Creek where our camp is located),
Photos 1
Photos 2


Part of problem with these fires has been the sudden change in weather. On Saturday the temp was up to 46 (116) degrees and the wind was coming from the NW (called a "northerly") at about 55-70 km/hr. This was at 3pm. By 5pm the temp had dropped to 33 (90) degrees and the wind had completely changed directions (called a "cool change"), now coming from the SW at 50-70km/hr. This violent change in direction and temp caught some off guard. People were set up for the winds coming from the NW, but when the winds changed to the SW the fire completely reversed direction. I took snapshots of the weather station's web site recording the change. If this type of violent change in weather would have happened in Indiana you would have seen tornadoes. It is too dry here for tornadoes. Thank goodness for that. I can't think of anything worse than a tornado on fire.

3:00pm

4:30pm

5:00pm