I've just got back from a week in Cabramurra. It was totally surrounded and
we thought it was gone. I am amazed lives were not lost. The whole area is
totally scorched earth.
I work for Snowy Hydro (a power generator) and we lost a vital lift house
that is a power and communications reticulation point. And pretty much all
our 11 kV reticulation. We had some very busy days in restoration and
patching mode. Yet the Snowy had power on 36 hours after the fires went
through. The clean up will take months.
One group of people got caught around a radio station. Totally surrounded
and they hid inside. The radio call from the chopper was "they're gone".
This radio station was highlighted as a fire loss whe none came through.
Everything else burnt. I think we are now changing our fire contractors....
One person said to one of the trapped blokes "We thought you were dead". He
replied "I looked out and saw flames. I knew where I was going!".
Foxy
----- Original Message -----
Foxy lives nearby at Khancoban in the Snowy Mountains but he's got his hands
full with his own ring of fires. He had 23 bushfires around them a week ago.
These Canberra bushfires and the ones around Sydney before Christmas are the
worst in over a hundred years. And now we've got a host of them starting in
Victoria as well.
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