Regarding Terry McGee and Fires in Australia

[Ben Shaffer]

Hi Terry,
We've watched and read about the Fires in Australia.
Our Prayers go out to you and your Countrymen.
I hope this Email finds you safe.
Regards,
Ben Shaffer

Thanks Ben
Yes, all safe here. Grim news from Victoria though with over 100 dead, 750 homes lost, thousands homeless, etc. Nearest fire to here is about 50 miles away. Jesse will probably go out one day this week to work on containment lines for that one.

Terry

[Cathy Wilde]

Thanks for the update, Ben.

Prayers for you and crew, Terry. "Extra-safe" wishes for Jesse, too. I'm very sorry.

[Cork]

I've seen the news about the deadly fires in Australia, just horrible.

[Terry McGee]

Hi all

Thanks for your concerns, but we are well away from the problem areas here (so far!). The weather is a lot more gentle since the fires ravaged Victoria, so fire crews now have a chance of building containment lines to corral the fires. Pretty hard to build a containment line when the fire front is moving toward you at 100KM (60MPH).

Lives lost are now approaching 200, with more expected as emergency services sift through the remains. Something like 750 homes lost and 5000 homeless. It's now the worst bushfire disaster in the history of European settlement in Australia, and probably our worst peacetime disaster of any kind. We lived through the Canberra 2003 bushfire that destroyed about 500 houses, but only 4 died, so we can only wonder at the ferocity of these fires.

It's nice to be able to report that our Prime Minister has received calls and offers of help from leaders of countries around the world, including the new US President, UK Prime Minister, NZ, and a lot of others.

Terry

[Henke]

I'm glad to hear you are safe Terry. The fires have been all over the news in Sweden as well, but it's difficult to imagine the magnitude of this disaster. I understand that you have had other things on your mind than flutes lately.

I'll raise a dram to the dead when I get the chance, perhaps an Ardbeg
whisky

[Gabriel]

Good to hear that you're well, Terry. I heard about the fires in the evening broadcast yesterday. I didn't realize that the situation is so seriours, until now. It is hard to believe that some of the fires were started by man. Why would somebody do that. And at which price...
Best wishes to you and yours.

[Guinness]

...It is hard to believe....

Sadly, it is not.

Addendum:
U.S.: 17.2 to 50.7 per 100000 in 2005 vs. Victoria: 57.9 per 100000 in 2005.

[greenspiderweb]

Thanks for posting this Ben, and glad to hear you are OK Terry. Of course, we were thinking of you and wondering how you were-may this all end soon to start the healing of the people and the land.

Take care, and be well, Barry

[s1m0n]

I'm also glad to hear you're ok. I've drooled over the pics of your lovely new house and land; the thought of that all up in smoke would be awful. I know that this is what hundreds of others are facing, but I don't know them.

[caitlin ruadh]

Glad to hear you and yours are safe, Terry. My best wishes to you all.

Caitlin

[talasiga]

I'm also glad to hear you're ok. I've drooled over the pics of your lovely new house and land; the thought of that all up in smoke would be awful. I know that this is what hundreds of others are facing, but I don't know them.

Thanks for all the good wishes for us Australians.

One thing to remember is that Australia is an island continent almost as large as the land area of the USA.
Terry is quite a distance from Victoria and in my case, we have had a lot of wet weather.
In fact last week our village was cut off due to rising waters.

That doesnt mean I dont care about the fires. We (Wren and I) do our best by donating to appeals. Also we support our local rural fire teams which are volunteer organisations.

It is interesting how positve aspects of our culture are consolidated by the negative vicissitudes of nature.