Saturday, February 07, 2009

Victoria burns

Here's the latest image from the Age website. Every report about how the situation is as bad as or worse than 1983's "Ash Wednesday" fires sends chills up my spine: half of Mount Macedon, the town where my sister and her family now live, was destroyed in one of the 180 fires started that day. I spoke to her last night and she said it really felt apocalyptic, with oppressive heat and the rushing sound of powerful winds blowing things around. (Several of their deciduous trees lost all their leaves already in last week's heat wave.) For now, her area seems spared, but I noticed a picture on the website of firetrucks under a dark sky near Warragul, where my brother-in-law's brother and their family live. May they, may all, be safe and protected.