Last week I wrote all about the fires and said that we had to get through Saturday. Well, we survived, but I think we are all traumatised. That day we were all just kind of waiting. We were in the usual smoke haze, but the weather seemed pretty calm. We went into blackout in the early afternoon, which we expected. We are so ready for blackouts now, we just grab our camping gear: flashlights, lantern, headlamps, cooker. But then the power came on again long enough for us to cook dinner (yay!) and then back to blackout. During the afternoon my friend Anna who lives up high out the back of Milton, was sending us photos of her view in which she could see the fire at Tabourie. We were getting updates from her throughout the day, and then around 5:30 she took a photo of the southerly blowing in, a massive cloud of smoke. Next thing she sent a 3 second video of a completely orange windstorm that looked pretty hairball. At dinner Jeff said how calm it was, and then literally 10 minutes later, the most massive wind came through, blowing over our patio chair. At that point we started putting belongings in the cars, because we thought the town was toast. It was insanely windy, and there was so much smoke and ash. We sat tight, and then at 7:30 we got the message that my friend Anna had evacuated and thought her house was gone. Her daughter is Carmie's best friend, and she has a little boy Jasper too. My heart broke for those two babies, and then I realised that Milea and all the horses are Anna's neighbours, and I went into full-blown panic. It was so scary, with the wind and the blackout. Then I got word that Milea was safe, and we found out the next morning that Anna's house was still standing. The front porch is gone, her entire shed is gone, along with all the farm equipment, and her ute is gone, and she has structural damage to her house along with no power and water. It turns out that after saving her own place, Milea is such a cowboy that she went and saved Anna's place too. The people around here are absolute legends. We hear so many stories that are heart breaking, but the town is really rallying together to help. This is going to impact our town for a very long time. This is our tourist season, but we have no tourists, so business are and will be closing, our unemployment will be going up. Our beaches are now polluted. There is ash everywhere, and so many homeless. Anna and her husband and kids have had to move out and will most likely be renting for a year while they make their home and property habitable again. There are so many families who have lost absolutely everything. It is just all so incredibly sad.
Carmie has been hyper emotional. She breaks at the slightest reprimand and it sends her into a tailspin. Arley is quite happy to stay at home. He hasn't been impacted by the fires as much as Carmie. We took the kids on a drive one afternoon and headed past Conjola. We stopped off at St Mary's which is where the fire seemed to stop at Milton on New Year's Day (besides the fireball that was Croobyar Rd). As we drove through Milton, it looked like a giant had been throwing giant fireballs. Massive areas were simply scorched, and houses in ruins, and then large patches of green like nothing happened. Then as you get closer to Conjola and Fishermans Paradise, it's all just burnt trees and grass. Apparently from Ulladulla to Bateman's Bay it is all just black except for one 20m stretch of green. It is heart wrenching to see. It feels like our community will never be the same.
We have had four days of reprieve: cooler weather and even a little sprinkling of rain. But now we have to get through tomorrow. We have another bad fire day forecast, and I kind of feel like this will let us now if we're out of the woods or not for this fire season. It seems like we are, but no one wants to get complacent. That's what happened to Anna, as they thought because the fire had already spread through their area on Christmas Eve, they would be fine.
But on a good note, today we had our first day of little smoke, blue skies and sunshine! We hustled off to Mollymook park to meet some friends for lunch, and it was SO good to get out again and breathe some fresh air. Sadly we will wake up tomorrow in smoke haze again, but then after that we have cooler weather forecast.
A few other things happened this week. The kids got a belated Christmas package from their Nema in the States, and that totally cheered them up. They have discovered how to photobomb each other's iPads, as well as mine and Jeff's phones, by changing the wallpapers to silly photos of themselves. We had a trip to the library, as Carmie has been reading up a storm lately, and I can't keep up. And my poor mother fell at golf and managed to break her elbow and two ribs. Carmie cried as soon as she saw her when we went to the hospital to pick her up. Not the best way to end the week!
OK, so fingers crossed for tomorrow!
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