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Victorian bushfires death toll expected to rise to 230
The Australian ^ | 9th February 2009

Posted on 02/08/2009 6:51:39 PM PST by naturalman1975

THE DEATH toll from the nation's worst bushfires is expected to more than double, with the Victorian Government being advised to prepare for 230 fatalities.

(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bushfire; bushfires; deathtoll; massmurder
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To: goodnesswins

Check the key words goodnesswins.

Start with Athens first as that was 2008; then Paris next.


21 posted on 02/08/2009 7:33:05 PM PST by Cindy
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To: naturalman1975
This is awful. I've emailed my cousins in Melbourne, as well as my aunt who is visiting there from Perth but haven't heard from them yet.

We in San Diego have very fresh and painful memories of the fires that paralyzed our city and caused 650,000 to evacuate, in October 2007.

My prayers are with are friends in Oz.

22 posted on 02/08/2009 7:33:35 PM PST by sofaman (Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to the one place in the ME with no oil - Golda Meir)
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To: Fred Nerks

Australia is lousy with vile islamists, who have been SPECIFICALLY threatening forest arson during the hot, dry Aussie summer (now).


23 posted on 02/08/2009 7:35:45 PM PST by FormerACLUmember
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To: cripplecreek

The fire moved at speeds driven by gale force winds. Air temperature 117 F.

It became impossible to drive down roads where the fire moved faster than the vehicles could travel. Within the settlements, I watched a video where a wall of fire fifty feet high moved across a house and wooded lot in four seconds. That was four seconds between all green and totally engulfed.


24 posted on 02/08/2009 7:39:03 PM PST by Sundog (Atlas Shrugged needs to be required reading . . . Which character are you?)
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To: naturalman1975; LucyT

Just spoke to a friend in Melbourne, all the time she was on the telephone she couldn’t stop crying. This is a terrible tragedy.


25 posted on 02/08/2009 8:00:56 PM PST by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
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To: Fred Nerks
This is a terrible tragedy.

I'm so, so sorry. Prayers for all.

26 posted on 02/08/2009 8:29:28 PM PST by LucyT
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To: Fred Nerks

<This is a terrible tragedy.

I spent some time this morning reading on Australian news sites. We aren’t getting half the story over here. There are some horrendous stories coming out of the affected area.

I admit to not knowing about these big fires, but it seems that California gets them quite frequently with no where near the loss of life. What has happened in Australia?


27 posted on 02/08/2009 8:34:07 PM PST by radiohead (Buy ammo, get your kids out of government schools, pray for the Republic.)
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To: radiohead

“What has happened...”

Long period of no rain, high temperatures and have a look at the image at #13 and the comment ‘mobile arsonists’ - IMO terrorism is not ruled out.


28 posted on 02/08/2009 9:08:46 PM PST by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
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To: naturalman1975

Have any waterbombers been used?


29 posted on 02/09/2009 5:20:20 PM PST by tanuki (Summum ius summa injuria. (The more law, the less justice))
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To: tanuki

Yes, they are used a lot. We have a lot of our own and hire additional large waterbombers from the US every summer.

Australians refer to the Erickson S64 Air-Crane helicopter as ‘Elvis’ after a US waterbomber of that name saved dozens of lives over Sydney in 2001.

This year, we have six of those operating over here including Elvis.


30 posted on 02/09/2009 5:40:19 PM PST by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975

Thanks for the info! I wondered if some of those big jet watertankers built lately might have helped. I know we in California were screaming for them last year.


31 posted on 02/09/2009 6:25:06 PM PST by tanuki (Summum ius summa injuria. (The more law, the less justice))
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