This is a very simple post to point to coverage of the fires in Australia, which as the Daily Mail says means “Australian towns teeter on brink of a humanitarian crisis”. I encourage you to click through to their extensive coverage of the Australian brush fires. Particularly frightening are the ground-level pictures of firefighters battling the fires and the satellite photos showing their extent.
I have been horrified by the wildfires in California (where I lived 25 years) over the last few years, both by their ferocity and extent. At times, it seemed like the whole state was burning.
But an entire continent…
Words fail me.
Other diaries related to this disaster on the front page:
Half a billion animals incinerated in Australia by Pakalolo
Australia's burning, the reefs are dying, and 87 American universities support global warming denial by certainot
Australian Navy begins to evacuate the stranded in Malacoota; Morrison faces the restless natives
Pakalolo [new link]
This needs to be on the news channels 24x7. Summary from Daily Mail:
NEW SOUTH WALES:
- 15 lives lost, four in the past 48 hours
- One person remains missing
- More than 110 bushfires burning
- 3.6 million hectares burned, greater than the size of Belgium
- 1,298 homes confirmed destroyed
VICTORIA:
- One person dead, 17 more missing
- About 50 bushfires burning
- More than 766,000 hectares burned
- 68 structures confirmed destroyed but this number is expected to rise significantly
[MORE SUMMARY FOR OTHER STATES AND TERRITORIES ON THE DAILY MAIL SITE]
[Emphasis mine]
The importance of this should not be lost on anyone in the U.S. In another six months it will be summer here.