Concern about our Aussie friends...

Thanks Talltom,

I appreciate it. Entire towns have been wiped away by the fires and over 100 people have been killed.

I am personally very upset. One of the towns, Marysville, was a beautiful little town with guesthouses, weekenders, little cafes, etc.

It was a favorite weekend getaway/holiday spot that I have been visiting since I was a child. My mother went there as a child and her mother before her. We loved it so much, my husband and I got married there.

Now, save for a few buildings, the entire town is gone... The school, the guesthouses (several dating back to the start of last century), not to mention the homes of so many.

It is truly devastating...

Hope everything is alright. We will be praying for you guys.

We were lucky in SA considering how horribly hot it was not to have had destruction from fires.

im about 45 minutes form bendigo where 50 houses are gone, but further east its worst, over 700 houses gone and 100+ lives lost and growing - some towns totally wiped out - please pray for the families

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our Victorian friends, memories of Ash Wednesday come flooding back here in SA

My thoughts and prayers are with all my sisters and brothers in Oz. Stay safe. Love and blessings.

The ironic tragedy of it all. Floods in the north, fires in the south.

Let's all pray for these people - that's a terrible situation.

Gary

I just wanted to add my thoughts and paryes are with all you Aussies a fantastic people.

Thank you guys for your thoughts and prayers. Tears are flowing here for the dreadful stories that are coming out of Victoria. One firefighter, while fighting to save homes in one location, lost his own home and 2 of his children. Whole families are burned to death in their cars while trying to escape.

The fires just came too quickly to evacuate and I know what that is like.

In Canberra the heat has been horrendous as well. Five or six days with temps over the 40* Celsius has been hard to live through so needless to say a lot of us have not been on the Internet much.

Fire storms are like tsunamis they hit and few can escape. It is just 6 years ago that Canberra was in this situation and over 400 houses were lost with fatalities. The fire was seen out of my kitchen window way off in the distance at around 9 am. By 1pm the first suburbs were hit and reports of 100 homes burned in Duffy was trying to sink in to our numb brains. By 3pm it had galloped across six or more suburbs and houses in my own street were gone as were several around me. That is the irony of fires. They hit one or several houses and spare others.

The pitch black turns day into night, the cyclonic winds the fire generates sounds like F14s racing overhead and the embers burn into flesh as efforts are made to put water on roofs. People in Victoria had even less chance than those of us in Canberra who survived. The fires were on them in seconds and many were trapped in cars as they tried to flee.

Its a hard country sometimes but you guys in the Northern Hemisphere are also doing it tough in parts and my thoughts and prayers are with you also. We have seen the fires in California and pray for all who are affected by them as well.

God bless everyone wherever they are and under what circumstances they are going through at this time. It seems like nature is getting its own back for all the abuse we have given it.

Norma

ye allot of my mates were affected by these fires i just wish them all my love

Hi guys.

It's been a horrible weekend here in Victoria.

My friends and their 2 daughters are still missing since 10:00pm Sat night. (1:00 pm Mon now).

There names have been called out numerous times on radio to no avail.

Unfortunately there are still massive fires going in most parts of the state.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected from this absolute tragedy.

Brett.

The news is terrible Its an absolute emergency and it seems that it may have been caused by some Ars**** who dileberately lit the fires
We have afire raging in NSW central coast and it was deliberately lit Police have arrested a 31 year old man.
The situation in Victoria is beyond comprehension and has stunned our nation more than 1000 houses and more than 108 dead with a lot more excpected when they get in and check all the burnt out cars and buildings.
Our armed forces have been placed on stand by to go in and help but whoever thought that the experince they gained in the Tsunami and other disasters over seas would eventually be needed here at home.
There is growing groundswell of opinion that says arsonists should be charged with murder If they bring back the death penaly maybe they should consider burning the offenders to death.
Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers

Some of my in-laws live in Australia, but I think they're far away from the fires. I hope so. I think one of the things I found most upsetting was the mention that some of the fires had been restarted by arsonists after being put out by firefighters. No sense or compassion, some people.

We're in the middle of some extreme (cold) weather here in the UK this week, accompanied by lots of typical British grumbling about the disruption it's caused. The truth is, we don't know we're born. Climate-wise, we've got it made in comparison to many.

I really, really feel for you all over there, and wish such things didn't have to happen in order to put other 'problems' into perspective.

Like had been said before my thoughts are with all of you. I have family living in Aus and I am hoping for their safety.

My Uncle is in the serious burns unit after receiving serious blistering to his face and hands. He stayed back to protect his house that him and his wife had built. He managed to save his house but lost all his sheds and a truly magnificent garden.

Still, he is lucky compared to many others who lost everything. A friend of a friend lost everything ...including their pet cow (they loved that cow like a child).

The final toll wont be known for days yet - the fires are still burning many areas are inaccessible due to fallen trees across the roads etc.

The wind and the heat on that day was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. Just incredible.

My sincere prayer goes out to all the Australians who were directly or indirectly affected...Was really saddened by the news

I'm reading all your well wishes and even though I'm in Queensland and not near the fires, I have tears streaming down my face reading all these posts right now!

that happens more often than not here - some little sh!thead is bored, has sniffed too much of something and wants to see what happens if...

I have a few ideas in mind what we should do with the little turds if they're caught, but usually they aren't.

I'm in Qld and up here its a lot more tropical weather, even tho it's bloody hot, it's also really humid and summer is our wet season, so fires don't spread so much here in summer as they would in winter.

Originally I'm from South Australia, where along with Victoria they are usually the ones hit the hardest. The fires are incredibly fierce and fast and sometimes you just don't get any notice. They'll be heading in one direction, we'll get a wind change and the fire will head off somewhere unexpected. I imagine it's much like a tornado.

I'd say there are a lot of us all holding our breath until it's safe again for our Mates in the southern states.

My Hopes and Prayers go out to everyone in Vic ATM, it's terrible the plights mother nature inflicts on us at times.

I'm currently up in Cairns which is cut off from the rest of the world from extreme flooding.

Unfortunatly these problems are getting worse and worse over the years due to global warming. It's our duty as entrepreneurs not only to pray for the families going through these disasters at the moment but to do something about it.

For those in Australia who are able to donate the phone number is 1800 811 700

If you are able to provide accomodation or support for homeless you can call in on 9096 0000 or 1300 650 172.

Aussies dig deep as millions flow in for bushfire aid | Herald Sun

I think we need to think a lot more seriously about addressing the issue of global warming too, after reading Richard Bransons book "Screw It, Let's Do It" It really opened my eyes to just how bad the problems are getting and are only going to get worse in the years to come if we don't do anything about it.

Cheers, Tim

we're praying for you here in the philippines

The news headline early this morning here in Michigan, "Aussie PM calls it mass murder..."

I am just heartbroken for all of you Aussies. You're good people, you don't deserve this.

But hang in there. Without valleys, there can be no mountaintops.

I've started my day with another prayer for you guys. You aren't far from my mind today.

May God truly bless everyone of you guys today!!!

Talltom

BTW, unfortunately our friends in California are highly skilled at detecting and tracking down the a**holes that start these types of fires. I hope somebody in Aussieland has the good common sense to make some phone calls and invite a few of these people to Australia....and no, I also wouldn't turn them over to the police (wrong of me, but it'd make me feel better)

I've been in the UK the last few months and we are all moaning about the poor weather, cold, wet, snow, ice etc...

We have nothing compared to some of you folks and we must be thankful we don't get such extremes of weather as so many people around the world seem to get these days.

My heart goes out to you all.

One thing I am certain of is that the great Aussie fighting spirit will see you all through this difficult time.

Best wishes.

My prayers and wishes are for your ausies.. hope you guys have the patience to go through all this.

Best wishes.

makes me sick to the stomach to think that someone lit these fires deliberately, its an absolute tragedy

My praters are with all of you.

Latest figures: Death toll now 173 and rising. Homeless people now number in the thousands. Hundreds of people wounded, some not expected to survive. Burns units overwhelmed. Firefighters exhausted. No more facilities available to fight new fires. The story gets worse as new fires are breaking out and more towns are now threatened as winds pick up today.

Thank you all for your prayers but there is no end in sight for so many at this time. There is also the enormous emotional stress as so many report of how they heard the screams of their neighbours as fires overwhelmed them. How are they going to forget what they have gone through?

Yes, Aussies are stoic as we go through a lot from time to time but there is a limit to how much anyone can take.

Believe me it is so comforting to everyone that our good friends overseas are thinking of this situation.

Nature is turning on us and we have to change our ways. What Australia is going through now will be the case in the Northern Hemisphere before long. The enormous fires in California, Greece and Spain, to mention just a few of those from last summer, are still impacting not only on people in the regions but on the food resources that the world depends on.

No one has mentioned the stock loss, the vineyards, farms and stores that have been wiped out. Then again the flood in North Queensland, where over 60% of the state is in flood and over 40% in drought, has an enormous impact on food as farms are destroyed. The cane growers are being wiped out in many places.

A professor of the environment said on local TV last night that global warming is almost to the point where it is irreversible. It will run its own agenda from now on unless immediate action is taken.

God help us. Have we got 10 years left? Some believe not. Food for thought as we ponder where we are headed.

God bless

Norma

I'm in California, and we've had some problems with wildfires these past few years. But 1,000 is such a high toll I cannot imagine how devastating that is to the communities there. I send my prayers.

Wow ... really sad. Our hearts, prayers and thoughts from the UK

John

Absolutely heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Becky

More news reports here this evening. Absolutely awful. Hang in there guys!!! We're praying for you!!!

Talltom

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Hi everyone,

your kind words are very appreciated. I watched the news here last night and cried for the whole half hour. It was something I'd never witnessed before. The sheer depth of it is so hard to grasp..esp the fact that it's suspected many fires were deliberately lit - and now amid the mayhem apparently people are looting!

It's hard to imagine what these people are going through, I live in the state north of victoria where it's all happening and it's just devastating enough here in another state.

yesterday on the train home from work I was in tears.....reading it was terrible.

A heavily pregnant burn victim identified - two lives lost there with the one.

A father who had put his children in the car and gone inside to get one last thing only to come out and the car and the occupants on fire.

An elderly man who had left his elderly wife in what he thought was a safe shop in town and had gone back to check on his house only to come back and find his wife had died.

A man who had lost his wife and daughter, with burns all over his body going to a neighbour's house not wanting anyone to do anything for him but to please save his only remaining family member.

It's just horrific and beyond imagination.

A royal commission will be undertaken to find out how the hell this was all possible.

At one stage the biggest fire was 100 kilometres in width and moving 1.5 kilometres every few minutes. This is obviously how people got stuck. I think some people were told they had a better chance in their home - and they didn't. Others who left got cornered or smashed into other cars and all caught on fire.

It's something the likes of us in Oz have never seen before...hopefully we will never see again. Thankfully the weather has cooled but I believe there are still 30 or so fires going in Victoria, there are some I think in NSW....the military has been called as well as firefighters throughout Australia and there is a donations appeal today and also on thursday.

Thank you for your kind wishes. I send my prayers to people in victoria with much much love from Sydney.

Here's a link to one of our news sites http://www.smh.com.au/

Colleen
x

While I agree with everyone the first thing we should do is pray, but I also found this:

Australian Red Cross

It is the Australian Red Cross Relief Fund.

Michael

THANK YOU USA

It is the most heartwarming story of the day to be told that American firefighters have arrived today to help with the fires. The reports of a few hours ago said that Victoria had no more firefighting resources to tackle new blazes.

That is despite units from Canberra, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia on the ground working there. We need help from anyone and everyone who has firefighters to spare or fire fighting experience to contribute. Money is one thing but hands on help is vital.

God bless you all for your thoughts, prayers and concerns. It means a lot to all Australians.

Norma

My heart is saddened as I read these stories. May the God of peace shower you with comfort from above. May the Australians feel the Presence of God, who binds up the brokenhearted, and heals ALL wounds. I pray that the Australian people learn to cast their cares on God, for He cares for them. God is near the broken hearted.

Jesus is there. I pray that His Presence, His Peace, His comfort, and His joy will be there. I pray that the provision of God will be made manifest to this people.

It has been my experience that where sadness or low times come, God opens a deeper capacity for a relationship with Him, which gives more joy, more peace, more contentment.

My Australian friends, please, I exhort you, call out to Jehovah God for protection, and call out to Jesus Christ for peace, comfort, and most importantly, His love. His love washes all, cancels all, satisfies all.