Australian Heat!

[Michael Alexander]

No thanks, I will rather stay in Omund....

"Aus heat claims homes, lives
31/01/2009 09:01  - (SA) 

Melbourne - Australia's second-largest city Melbourne ground to a halt on Saturday, crippled by a once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed almost 30 lives and razed at least 17 homes.

Wildfires raged through the southeastern state of Victoria, where authorities said flames had come dangerously close to major electricity transmission lines which supplied power to Melbourne on Saturday.

More than 500 000 homes and businesses in Melbourne were left without power on Friday night after an electrical substation exploded in the heat, bringing the city to a standstill.

Temperatures in Victoria topped 43°C for a record-breaking third consecutive day on Friday, when 10 homes and a timber plantation were destroyed in a 6 500 hectare blaze.

The heat was blamed for a spike in sudden deaths in the neighbouring state of South Australia, which was in the grip of its hottest weather since 1908.

At least 22 people died in the South Australia capital, Adelaide, on Friday, said the state's health minister John Hill. Most were older than 70 and had likely just "succumbed to the heat," he said.

By Saturday morning the state's ambulance service said it had recorded another six deaths in a period of just three hours and expected to at least equal Friday's count by the day's end.

In Melbourne, the power cut meant all trains were cancelled, city buildings were evacuated, and rescue crews were called in to free workers trapped in office tower elevators.

Patients were turned away from overstretched hospitals running on reserve generator power.

"The line ... literally exploded in the heat, and I don't know if anyone could ever have prevented that from occurring," Victoria's premier John Brumby told Sky News.

"We're in unchartered waters, unprecedented conditions, and with the week and hot weather (we've had) some of these systems have never been designed to operate in 44 to 45 degree heat," he said.

The unrelenting heat is forecast to continue for the next seven days, according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. Temperatures have topped 48 degrees in country areas, the bureau said"

[Lance Olivier]

Read in the Cape Times of the heat wave and the article reckons that railway lines were buckled by the heat. Also says that the Ozzie Enviro Minister is blaming the heat wave on global warming as over the past twelve years, eleven of those years have seen increased heat waves each year.

[Michael Alexander]

Yet the UK has one of it's coldest winters in 12 years....

In The USA, one of the states declares the blizzard a disaster....

[Bertie Horak]

On my way back from Bonnievale this morning, I took a picture of the Stellenbosch area.  Those are not clouds or a volcano, but a fire raging behind the Stellenbosch mountains on the Somerset-West side.  The smoke cloud over the town is from the previous day's fires.  I stay about 15 km to the west of the picture - and the mountains could not be seen from there today - too much smoke.

Terrible.  Still I think about the loss of life - all those poor insects, animals and plants.  Millions destroyed.

[Michele Alexander (Voden)]

My folks are out in Gordon's Bay and my mom's been complaining about the ash in the house! The other day they thought it was just a gloomy day - but it was all the smoke!

[toonfandangl]

Michael

Your post about the Australian bushfire's.
Its remarkable maybe its Global warming I don't think you can put it down to climate change.

We lived their in Victoria in the 80s and just like this last lot of bushfire's when Cockatoo and Upper Beaconsfield
were burnt out like Marysville.

It seems all along that part of the coastline from South Australia through to Victoria and parts of NSW they are subjected to these conditions which result in these fires every few years.

They have them in America Spain Portugal  and you have them their in South Africa as Bertie Horak mentioned in his post.

                                                                                                                                                                      Frank.

[Michael Alexander]

My Uncle and Cousins live just north east of Melbourne in the state of Victoria, and kept is in the news about the fires out there, luckily they were bypassed...

[toonfandangl]

I know a few South Africans living here in Queensland and one a Doctor whom I regard very highly
Twenty years ago his diagnose is the reason I am still here...........................Frank





http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/10/14/2390650.htm&ei=VaPDSf_bDM6OkAW98bnDDA&usg=AFQjCNE6pBseqF99v1L9BMvMNqdOJl3Uxw


Broadcast date Tuesday 14 October 2008

Dr Veruthaslam Padayachey has lived and practised as a doctor in the Queensland town of Maryborough for thirty years.

He fled from South Africa with his wife in the late 70s when apartheid was in full swing and the Special Security Branch was brutally enforcing the regime. Paddy, as he likes to be known, was born in Port Elizabeth to parents of Indian heritage and as a result, he was considered coloured, or black, under the apartheid regime. The consequences were far reaching for Paddy, whose opportunities were constantly limited by his skin colour. Despite a relatively poor education Paddy managed to gain entry into a science degree at Capetown University, and completed science before pursuing a medical degree.

After graduating, Dr Padayachey was successful in getting a British Council Scholarship to further his medical education, but the South African authorities would only extend his visa for a year. He needed a four year visa to specialise in orthopaedics. Paddy returned from London to work in the local hospital in his home town of Port Elizabeth. There he established the first club foot clinic but was frustrated by the inequity, that black doctors were being paid less than their white counterparts. He and his colleagues continued to agitate for equal pay and undertook a "go slow" approach in the hospital which attracted the attention of the Security Branch. In the days after the Soweto uprising, the number of young, black patients streaming through the hospital doors was horrific. Paddy was outraged and called the Security Branch policeman on the ward, to look at what they were doing. Later, Paddy was hauled in for a humiliating interrogation and continued to to be intimidated by Special Security. The incident prompted him to leave South Africa. Paddy hurriedly married his wife, Hazel and emigrated to Australia where he had a friend. His friend found a job advertised in Maryborough, which he successfully applied for.

Paddy and Hazel settled in Maryborough and despite some initial cultural differences they've enjoyed living and working in regional Australia ever since.