That would be a NASA satellite photo of fires in Victoria that have killed upwards of 71 people. Not good.And while bits of Australia fry to a crisp, other bits flood. As if this weren't bad enough, I discover my Aussie friends now face chronic crocodiles, among worse dangers:
Seriously, you guys. Stay safe. And should you need a couch, well, I've got one. Beer could certainly be arranged.Local media said huge crocodiles in the centre of some towns around the Gulf of Carpentaria have hampered rescue efforts and large numbers have reportedly been seen swimming towards the 60 km-wide (37-mile) mouth of the flooded Norman River.
Manager of the Albion Hotel in Normanton, Donna Smith, said a four-metre (13ft) crocodile had been seen stalking residents and dogs in the flooded main street.
She also warned the town was expected to run out of beer in two days.
"We can put up with a lot of drama, no fruit and veggies, but nobody wants a pub with no beer," Ms Smith told Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper.
3 comments:
I was looking for bigger pictures, and I'm finding pictures of forest fires in that area that go as far back as December.
It's been VERY hot all summer this year, usually we can expect a hot, dry spell for a bit but this year my home town has had nearly a month of plus 35C temps and no rain to speak of (and the norm is maybe a week of 35C and then back to the mid to high 20's)and when it does come, it is with thunder storms and lots of lightening strikes :-(
I am fortunate in that I live quite a way away from the fires(so far) but I know people who do live down in Victoria and friends of friends have lost houses or know someone who has perished.
Thanks for your good thoughts and well wishes and beer, I will pass them on to those most in need.
The death toll in the fires currently stands at 108, and more than 700 homes destroyed. Both those numbers will rise. 26 fires still burning in Victoria and still dozens in NSW as well.
In the last few days we had some fires locally, just a few miles away (close enough that we had to shut the house up because of the smoke) - there's lots of bushland, including a bunch of national parks, right in among Sydney's suburbs, so fires are a hazard even right here in the middle of Sydney), but it's been nothing like as bad as what they're getting down south. I expected big problems down there by late January, because my mum was telling me how all the trees (hundreds of them) that she'd planted when I was a kid had died from the drought. When you're getting trees decades old dying from drought, you've got serious problems coming.
Fortunately it's much cooler up here this morning.
You need a scale on that photo - the image is nearly 400 miles wide and more than 500 miles high. (The island down the bottom of the picture is Tasmania. Yes, those are fires there too.)
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