Week 7 to 10-2009
Fire Aftermath near Daylesford
A terrible time in Victoria !
We have had some very bad weather days, by that I mean, extremely hot, dry and low humidity. When the days are calm, then it is not too bad! But , when a Northerly wind is forecast, then the fire danger is very real. February 6th was announced as one of the worst days that had ever been, and that it proved to be. The wind was blowing at over 100 kmh, and the temperature was 46.4 degrees Celsius. The bush fires absolutely devastated some of the mountain areas quite close to Melbourne, areas where the population density is quite high for a country area due to large numbers of people choosing to live in the bush. Due to the temperature and the wind, the fires moved very quickly. Some small towns, such as Marysville, were destroyed with many people killed.
By Sunday morning, the news was gradually coming through about the extent of the tragedgy. In Ballarat, which was a distance from most of the fires with the exception one fire at Bendigo and one at Daylesford, it was all a little surreal. We had a bit of smoke in the air, but otherwise, there was very little impact on our area. The final loss of life was 173, 100 male, 73 female. Some were children and families. 113 deaths occured in houses. 3,500 structures were destroyed.
There were some herioc stories, some tragic.
The army was called in to assist, so Michael spent several days in the fire areas.
The aftermath of the fires will be with us for years. It must NEVER happen again.
Amongst all this tragedy, I have been sewing to get ready for the trip. I have made a couple of pairs of trousers and a couple of shirts. I have been working on my Kaffe Fassett quilt, which is now complete except for sewing the hanging pocket by hand and going over the quilt to redo some of the quilting . I still love the fabrics! I will put this quilt into the Begonia Quilters Exhibition.