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Thu 2 Jan, 2020 05:29 am
ppsland Emergency Alerts & Info
17 mins ·
Mossi-Tambo Fire Brigade
17 mins ·
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Bruthen CFA community meeting update:
- VicEmergency app: is not coping, far from perfect but doing the best it can. ABC local news/radio next best resource.
- We need to prepare!!
- 800,000 hectares of fire. 1,800km fire edge. Everyone south of this edge on Friday night and Saturday are at risk.
- Friday: gradual northerly breeze increase, midnight air flow increase, things will get bad. By 8am Saturday morning 40-50km hour northerly winds- similar to Monday
- Saturday: winds persist till midday Saturday before strong southwest change up to 80km/hr. Flank will be unstoppable.
- If you don’t need to be here Friday night and Saturday, leave Friday morning. Can’t stress this enough!!
- 2 strike teams (5 trucks and one controller per team) in Bruthen to back up local resources. DWELP task force as well. Don’t rely on a truck at your house!!
- Can’t save everyone. Protection of critical infrastructure and community assets are prioritised.
- No rain expected, no chance of fires stopping till runs out of fuel.
- No need to be a hero, just leave.
- High chance fires will run back over burnt areas- there is still fuel load amongst Sarsfeild and further, it could skip back over.
- Most concern around Bruthen impact from the north fire, but could also come from Nowa Nowa in the north and westerly from Sarsfeild. Wind change will force fire to impact Bruthen. It WILL impact Bruthen. Expected to infiltrate the Colqhoun forest as well.
- Hoping to assemble strike teams at Rec Reserve in Bruthen, setting up water from river to there, if you need water quickly in emergency from the standpipe if necessary. Siphon from where you can, use as much.
- Water situation: open every pipe, we lose pressure, no pressure, no water. Using the Tambo where possible. Town water tank will drop again. It’s not about the amount of water, it’s what you choose to extinguish and how you do it. Prioritise assets.
- 2 local brigades are staying put, fighting as much as they can. Units brought in- committed to us.
- Make sure cars are fueled, pumps fueled and primed, rubbish removed.
- Even cfa themselves acknowledge when their home is defendable or not. Recognise your limitations.
- Make the decision NOW. If you’re not sure- GO.
- If you stay- make sure you can physically and mentally do it. If you can’t, go.
- Police: traffic management, emergency vehicles only, instructions are to not let anyone back in. Hopeful there has been some common sense to allow local residents in.
- Great Alpine Road is being opened between Bruthen and Bairnsdale TONIGHT. From Bairnsdale to Engineers road Bruthen, carry ID just in case but it’s being opened.
- PLEASE DON’T RUBBERNECK.
- Where to go- relief centre at the Bairnsdale footy oval, if you don’t have anywhere else to go. If it’s full the racecourse will be activated as a secondary relief centre.
- Let people know if you’ve left! Shire website, list as left and where you’ve gone so you can be found.
- Waste: transfer station will be opened ASAP (tomorrow), opened as early and as long as possible.
- Curbside collection being organised ASAP.
- DHHS: lots of support available, assisting with the facilitation of relief payments.
- AgVic: visiting properties effected by fire, gathering intel on stock losses, fencing loss, water and fodder needs. Teams include vets and animal welfare officers.
- The Bruthen hall is NOT a designated safer place, it will be protected BUT it does not meet the standards. Do not turn up at the hall, LEAVE NOW. IF YOU DON’T NEED TO BE HERE, GET OUT. IF YOU CHOOSE TO STAY, get in touch with neighbours, band together, fight together.
- Do not go to Lakes Entrance, it is NOT SAFE. GO WEST. KEEP GOING WEST.
- TOURISTS NEED TO LEAVE!!
- You will be told over social media, VicEmergency app and ABC radio when it is safe to return. Looks at fire activity, hazardous trees, gas leaks, water leaks, sewer/septic issues, asbestos risk before declaring it safe to return.
- If you’re leaving, turn off gas bottles, make sure appliances and power are turned off.
- Fire siren: tells firefighters to get in quick. If the fire breaches the towns perimeter from View Street down, to the east Chambers road, North from Gardam court/Little Dick. Fire siren will be activated and not stopped- it’s coming, run and hide.
- Power will be lost, accept it. Emergency power generation, being explored to install in Main Street and bring a generator in for the telephone exchange.
- See anything suspicious, report it.
- If you’ve got water, whack a sign on the fence that says water is available, CFA will replace it.
- How can you help- GET OUT.
- Lots of backburning happening close to community rather than the bush. Ground breaks on private land, work happening in the bush but when it kicks off, resources are drawn to the assets rather than stopping the fire. They don’t expect firebreaks to hold. The driest soil moisture ratings on record in East Gippsland.
- When it’s safe to do so, another community meeting will be held.
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This is happening in eastern Victoria now. God knows how many 100's of houses have been lost. Thousands of campers and holiday makers in the area have headed for the coast and now they're trapped there because of road closures, but the small towns just can't cope with so many people. They've run out of food, drinkable water, fuel, the power is out, there's no phone reception or internet. The navy went there today to start taking people out by sea, but it's going to take days and days to get them all.
They don't know how many people have died at this stage and wont until they're able to get into the remote areas. There are a number of people unaccounted for.
It's just heartbreaking.
The pictures are truly frightening. The toll on wildlife has been devastating. And the fire season isn't even half over yet.
@cherrie,
It's horrific.
Has it ever been this bad before.
Your government are climate change deniers, any sign of that changing.
The news is horrifyingly surreal. This is like a dystopian horror movie. I can't imagine the sounds and smells and sights Australians are witnessing. We may lose koalas as well.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/australia/australia-fire-evacuation-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
Thousands of people were already fleeing the state's south coast on Thursday, with the Rural Fire Service setting up a "tourist leave zone" from the town of Batemans Bay down to the Victoria border. All visitors were urged to evacuate before Saturday, when temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), dry conditions and ferocious winds are expected to heighten the risk of further blazes.
"These will be dangerous conditions,"
the fire service warned. "Do not be in this area on Saturday."
Thousands are evacuating from the coast
Similar hot, windy weather on Tuesday led to massive fires spreading out of control. Seven people died from the fires within 24 hours. Conditions improved slightly on Thursday -- creating a small window of opportunity for people to evacuate before the situation worsens again Saturday.
Tens of thousands of people are estimated to be in the south coast region, home to seaside towns that swell in population during summer.
Residents on Thursday were heeding the warning. Hundreds if not thousands of cars were backed up in small towns south of Nowra, on the southern coast, according to police. Roads away from the tourist area were packed with long lines of cars waiting to leave, and one major road heading south beyond Nowra was closed due to a fire that jumped the highway.
Some people had been waiting in line for hours and were getting frustrated, with little indication of when the road will open.
@hightor,
We're only a month into summer and unfortunately fire season doesn't end when summer ends. It will keep going probably to April this year.
@eurocelticyankee,
These are the worst fires we've had in Victoria since Black Saturday in 2009, which was one of the worst fire disasters we've had in Australia. We're expecting dry thunderstorms tomorrow, high temps and strong winds, so potentially even more of a disaster than it already is.
@Lash,
It wont only be koalas, there will be millions of native animals and birds killed.
I read that article, where it says they're evacuating 800 people by ship is 800 per trip. There's between 4000 and 5000 people who need to be taken out.
@hightor,
Incredible photo. Very scary.
@eurocelticyankee,
They’re coming under some real pressure....including from within their own ranks, but they are so fixed in their beliefs it’s hard to imagine what will shift them except critical levels of disapproval in polls which remains constant and makes a critical number of them fear losing their seats.
To add to the problem, the current PM is a raving pentecostalist, who believes in Armageddon as his god’s plan and death to people like me while he and the other elect inherit life eternal.
Therefore he appears to have no worries even for his own children and grand children. They’ll be beaming down at a ruined earth from heaven I guess.
@cherrie,
Koalas? We’re losing species we never knew existed. Estimates of native wildlife losses are at over 500 million and the toll in animal suffering beyond comprehension, including sheep, cattle, horses etc.
We have temperate and tropical rainforests burning that are not known to have burned in human history here....which goes back a minimum of fifty thousand years.
Human death toll unknown as yet as nobody can get near many isolated homes and little settlements
C'mon Gaia give em some rain.
@Borat Sister,
Quote:We have temperate and tropical rainforests burning that are not known to have burned in human history here....which goes back a minimum of fifty thousand years.
I had no idea this was so. I have no idea what to say.
@cherrie,
cherrie wrote:
It wont only be koalas,
I should try to write more carefully. I thought it would be clear that I meant I was concerned we’d lose the species, not a few. I’ve heard estimates at 80% losses. Apologies.
Meanwhile, two nightmares last night.
One: I was at school, spilled ink on myself, decided I could take off all my clothes, and sneak down the halls, apparently thinking no one would see me, hiding behind strategically placed wads of bathroom tissue. It almost worked, too, but when I arrived in my class, three state observers were waiting with clipboards.
Two: Screaming, burning koalas. I couldn’t help them.
I woke after that nightmare at 2:30 and stayed up, desperate not to hear that sound again.
Our world.
Rupert Murdoch is almost certainly the most consequentially evil person in my lifetime.
Quote:...A recent segment from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation rounded up examples of the climate denial pushed by conservative pundits in the Australian media, most of whom work for outlets owned by News Corp. For example, Peter Gleeson, a commentator at Sky News Australia and a columnist at The Courier-Mail, attacked a former fire chief who connected the fires to climate change as having “joined a cult” and “been brainwashed.” Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin not only denied the role of climate change in the fires, but also claimed that “there is no doubt ... that two decades-plus of climate change activism is making them worse.” Sky News Australia host Chris Kenny called the debate about the role of climate change in the fires “dumb,” “reckless,” and “offensive.” The Herald-Sun’s Terry McCrann attacked the media outside of Murdoch’s grasp for their coverage of the bushfires and denied their connection to climate change. In a November 6 monologue, Sky’s Andrew Bolt, a habitual climate denier who once attacked 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg as “deeply disturbed” and “strange,” called the “big global warming scare” a “con.”
Murdoch’s The Australian, the most widely circulated national paper in the country, has been on the attack against a competitor as the politics of climate coverage has become more contentious because of the fires. A recent report from The Guardian highlighted multiple op-eds in The Australian that have attacked the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as its television and radio outlets work overtime to produce lifesaving emergency broadcasts on local fire threats and updates on road closures, power lines, and food availability. Meanwhile, The Australian ignored the fires to cover New Year’s Day “picnic races” on the January 1 front page, even as papers elsewhere around the world covered Australia’s emergency as their top story...
MM
I had no idea feral camels were alive in Australia until I read yesterday that the killing of thousands of them has been authorized because they "drink too much water,"
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