Many or most people of polo know some people from the great country of Australia. It is time to say a orayer for many of them as they are in a firestorm much worse than the many we have known in Californiam which have been bad enough. These wildfires are killing thousands of animals and hundreds of humans. Please give them a moment in your day when you can and some hope for it to end.
We are suffering a rainy time here in California, but we have seen the disaster of fire and know how it feels, so we can relate to the devastation. Here is a e-mail from a friend who has someone who has been in the path of this destruction.
From: Monique Rameau [mailto:monique@rameau.com.au]
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 1:49 PM
To: ‘Paula Beamer’
Subject: RE: Victoria
It is so very sad Paula…. The TV has been nothing but the bushfires since Sunday. It is so tragic and tears well in my eyes every time I watch the TV. There are so many sad stories. I worry so much for the animals. One lady said the worst thing was hearing the animals screaming throughout the night. Vets were shooting animals before to save them the agony and obviously after. They think the animal toll is over 1,000,000, the human toll is 181 probably will rise to 300 and 750 homes and something like 350,000 hectares of land destroyed. I’m not sure what footage you get over there, but it is the worst thing I have seen. Some people just haven’t heard whether their relatives are dead. So many people were caught in cars, they couldn’t see to drive and there were pile ups of vehicles where they smashed into each other trying to escape and the fires just went over the top of them… the fires were moving so fast not many had any time to escape. The flames just engulfed them. Cars were found in driveways with keys in ignition, pets in the back and the bodies in between the house and the car. They just didn’t make it. It’s horrifying.
People are reuniting after 5 days of not knowing. There is no power or phones so it is very hard for anyone to contact others.
We will pray for all of them!
–Steve Crowder.
Thanks for posting the update. Having been affected by the Oct. ’07 firestorm in San Diego, I know how devastating it can be. If anyone in Australia, or someone here has contacts there, please keep us posted on what is going on and if there is anything we can do from here to assist. My heart goes out to those who are in the midst of this firestorm.
Lynn – PoloZONE.com
“Hi Lynn , yeah it’s been terrible here in Australia at the moment. Luckily we are south west of Melbourne away from most of the bush fires. It is really awful to see the damage and lives lost. I work in a vet clinic and we have seen burnt koalas & singed kittens… some have had to be euthanized — some have survived which is great to see. We have great wildlife caregivers over here and they are doing an amazing job of going into fire- affected areas to help retrieve some of the injured. We had only a smaller fire up the road and is well contained now, but still lets you know we are still in mother natures hands. Joey told me about the fires in SD in ’07, sounds like it was really bad. I’ll keep you posted thanks. Tina E.”