Firestorms

The firestorms back home are terrible news. So many people dead. Property destroyed and it's not over yet. I can't begin to imagine the grief, the terrible sense of loss the affected people must be experiencing. And it makes me grateful, of course, for my own situation. Family still intact, belongings in place. No loss.

I was scared for some of my cousins who live in Hurstbridge, sad for their loss of friends and a beautiful place to live. What's happened is almost incomprehensible. The strength and scale of a firestorm beyond what anybody ever knew could be. There are so many stories of those who survived where they just couldn't believe what was happening. Like the horror in a Hollywood disaster movie, but there's no walking away and going back to real life. This is life and sometimes life is horrible.

I feel devastated for those who tried to get away and couldn't, trapped in the blackness of smoke and fire debris, crashing into fallen trees and each other, their cars becoming incinerators. Gary Hughes wrote about his experience, an outstanding story of what it was really like and why so many people died.

And for those left behind to contemplate what's happened and what they must do next. My thoughts are with you. The trauma will take a long time to fade.

But in times of great hardship such as this, the community, friends and family will pull together. The strength of the human spirit will prevail and those left behind will rise up and rebuild their lives, changed forever by a hot weekend in February 2009.