One idea was that those of us who are trying to get this grassroots initiative off the ground write a post about who we are and why we want to help out.
Not sure where to start, except maybe from an inspiration I got from @contrabourdon ‘s post, in which he posted a map of where he and his loved ones are and move from there.
My family, my wife and our children are in the western area of Sydney. Luckily the immediate dangers are “over” at this time, yet to give you a bit of an idea as to how close the fires were here is a map:
Spot fires were popping up all over the place in that region around where we live. The latest one from a few days ago was 10 km away from our home. Again, I stress that the immediate dangers are hopefully all over with as I write this post.
Yet it was only a few weeks ago that the wind would blow into our front/back yard and roof the following:
I can say that we are lucky. Nothing happened. If it did, that would have been disastrous and the media kept people calm by not hitting on the real potential of the dangers that the entire region was faced with. Nothing worse than ‘panic’. I’ve seen it before in other parts of the world when panic sets into the masses. It is a cluster and things only get worse. So from what I was able to follow and conclude, the responsible psyops in coordination with national media did their job well. Hats off to them.
Being overseas and watching it all, feeling helpless sucks in its own special way. Makes a persons gut churn. That is my individual case. Literally made me sick for a few nights there.
Just to help put things into proportion, the land area burned is bigger than what 150 countries on this earth. Less than 120 countries on this earth are bigger. If that helps anyone understand the size of the devastation we are talking about. Over 24 million acres = 100,000 square km = 37,500 sqare miles. For all mi mates in The USA, imagine the whole of Kentucky, Virginia or Indiana all gone. Wiped out. Maybe by the end of this day of writing this post, you can imagine Ohio wiped out or a combination of any of the 15 other States that are smaller. That is literally the exact size of it all.
Don’t believe me, here, do the conversions yourself:
https://www.worldlandtrust.org/get-involved/educational-resources/area-converter/
I feel that many people don’t really get it, when it is “on TV” for a few seconds right before the sports.
But getting back to the post.
In the past weeks, my better half finally saw the need for bug out bags, she finally realized that all that talk about being prepared for the worst anywhere in this world is not being an ‘alarmist’, it is common sense.
She has packed the bug out bags for herself and our kids. Made sure that she understands the procedures of “bugging out”. The fact that she grew up in a war (overseas) somewhat makes it possible for her to comprehend some things easier. Unfortunately those are scars that she knows best and only she can mention, as we all handle things differently as individuals.
Luckily in todays day and age, with the technology we have out there, we are able to communicate and coordinate with people from all over the world. The idea didn’t cross my mind, it was presented at a online show in which people talk about posts we have on the Steem blockchain. A very blogging orientated type of thing we do! To cut a long story short, I presented a post about the insanity of it all as far as the fires go and a fellow compassionate human being suggested that “Fundition could be a good means to help out” (something to that affect).
Although when hearing that I was not at all in the mood to talk about anything ‘positive’, as every time I think about it all I get angry, the thought was mulling away in my mind. The fact is that we do have the means to all help out no matter where we are on this planet and then the question is WHY NOT? Comes to mind.
That is basically the entire moral of the chain of events and thought process behind starting up this grassroots initiative.
Idk what else to say about it all, as in reality, each and every one of us are individuals and we all have our own story and reasons for wanting to help out.
Humanity is wonderful when we try.
Our kids are now pitching in with making pouches for the surviving critters out there, 1.2 billion animals have perished, can’t save them, but we can help those who survived and who need love and care and from what I’ve been told, we’ve adopted a koala. No not in the house, just paying the bills.
Ref: https://koala.nsw.gov.au/help-nsw-koalas/
(The Facebook group listed.)
Same principle of thought and morals applies to all humans who survived, to all communities that need to recover, to all the wildlife and fauna that need to get back to normal, if normal is the right word for it.
I don’t feel like writing any more here about all this, just want to do something useful together with others who are wanting to do good too.
Grassroots = People and in this idea it is all about people helping people.
Thanks for reading, hope you can understand.
God bless you and your loved ones and may nobody have to go through what Australians have been going through for months on end.
& if anyone thinks it is all over, earlier today 16 Jan. 2020,
That great the kids are making pouches. I have a bad feeling these fire's ain't stopping anytime soon. I hope and pray they stop as it's enough damage all ready.
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Good idea for a website! Was stunned about a week ago to see this image from a European satellite of the Australian East coast
Keep it up! And maybe try to bring other Australian websites and writers passionate about the subject to connect to Steem with SteemPress? Would be happy to provide unique support to them!
How dry was the topsoil and underneath prior to the fires and for how long?
xx thinking of you and your neighbours too. I am not happy about this, infact it caused me a form of PTSD when I finally caught up with the onslaught of mainstream coverage.
I'm still sharpening my pencil over this as I'm terrified that the nation doesn't know, and furious at what I think is the real major contributor to this inexplicably widespread and sustained firey oblivion..