And the fires are still burning...
A death toll of 178 so far...
I'm not saying it's particularly bad -- after all, Hurricane Katrina makes this all seem trivial.
Still, I can't help but feel shock at the situation. With the death toll where it is, I imagine we'll be looking at a total of more than 300 when all the counting is done. They still have to count the bodies (some of which have been burned into ashes), and there are also people who are not dead, but have been burned so badly that they will be soon.
This kind of disaster just doesn't happen here. Our country's worst natural disaster before now killed less than 100 people.
Fires happen. Victoria is probably the most flammable place in the world, and we're prepared for it. I can't really grasp how these fires could get so bad.
There have been people arguing that the recent heat is all global warming's fault. It's impossible for me to say whether or not that's true. However, if Saturday had been one or two degrees cooler, would these fires have been so bad? Is that the difference that global warming would make?
Ah well. I'm whinging though as far as I'm concerned all I had to worry about was a heatwave and a short blackout. Metropolitan Melbourne is practically immune to major disasters. Perhaps these fires help explain why so much of Australia's population gathers in its capital cities. I never understood the desire to move out to the country.
Oh, and this really isn't going to help the economy.
Append 4pm
Maybe The Age gave me some bad information. The confirmed death toll seems to be 130 a the moment. We could be looking at around 200 total. This is a little more reasonable.
I'm not saying it's particularly bad -- after all, Hurricane Katrina makes this all seem trivial.
Still, I can't help but feel shock at the situation. With the death toll where it is, I imagine we'll be looking at a total of more than 300 when all the counting is done. They still have to count the bodies (some of which have been burned into ashes), and there are also people who are not dead, but have been burned so badly that they will be soon.
This kind of disaster just doesn't happen here. Our country's worst natural disaster before now killed less than 100 people.
Fires happen. Victoria is probably the most flammable place in the world, and we're prepared for it. I can't really grasp how these fires could get so bad.
There have been people arguing that the recent heat is all global warming's fault. It's impossible for me to say whether or not that's true. However, if Saturday had been one or two degrees cooler, would these fires have been so bad? Is that the difference that global warming would make?
Ah well. I'm whinging though as far as I'm concerned all I had to worry about was a heatwave and a short blackout. Metropolitan Melbourne is practically immune to major disasters. Perhaps these fires help explain why so much of Australia's population gathers in its capital cities. I never understood the desire to move out to the country.
Oh, and this really isn't going to help the economy.
Append 4pm
Maybe The Age gave me some bad information. The confirmed death toll seems to be 130 a the moment. We could be looking at around 200 total. This is a little more reasonable.