They train the military chopper pilots down here on the Panhandle and in Southern Alabama. They were very annoyed at not being allowed to help in New Orleans. There was a point when FEMA suspended flying over the city because of reports of gunfire. One on the pilots wondered what it hell FEMA thought flying in Iraq and Afghanistan was like. There attitude was, there were no SAMs or RPGs, so it was completely safe.

The Special Ops guys noted that one of their crew was called “the door gunner”, so anyone shooting at them would be in for a nasty surprise.

I know what it’s like going over an area hit by napalm, an it gets pretty damn exciting. You hit the express elevator of the thermal and then drop off the other side. I don’t want to find out what that’s like in a helicopter.

I don’t doubt, that Stavang feels he is a lot safer in his chopper, than being stuck on the ground, and I know that’s how I feel.

Also, I saw a report on the news that two would-be looters were killed when the building they were looting collapsed on them. Swift justice. Good. I hope it happens to all of them.

Events such as this always seem to bring out the extremes, the best and the worst.

Under the conditions that existed last Saturday, all you can do is grab some clothes and your paperwork and head for the ocean. Firebreaks 10 kilometers wide wouldn’t have stopped these fires.

Millions of animals dead in Australia fires

On the plus side, In one week, over $AU100 million has been raised so far, which they say equates to about $50k per lost home (so many homes have been destroyed!) About 20% of homes had no insurance.

The biggest problem however, will be to our depleted water supply. Experts are now predicting that because of the massive fire areas, when the vegetation regrows, it will use significantly more water then the old growth and of course will seek out the best water supplies. Also, some of the dam’s and catchments have been poisoned by ash and other contaminants caused by the fires and water will be lost because of extra filtration requirements. One expect predicted that the impact may be a 20% to as much as 50% reduction in available water over the next 50 years. Victoria cannot survive that as we now stand.

Dr Paul Feikema, a research fellow with the University of Melbourne’s Department of Forest and Ecosystems Science, is part of a team that has studied the possible effects of the Victoria fires.

He said a major bushfire would initially increase the amount of water flowing into the dam because of vegetation loss but would drastically cut flows as the forest regrew.

Models showed that with only 50 per cent of trees killed outright by a bushfire near the Thomson catchment, water yield would be cut by an average of 20 per cent for 50 years.

I’ll end with thanks to a brave Californian who helped save many last Saturday. 🙂

Shawn Stavang, the man behind Elvis Helitak’s might

SHAWN Stavang is the saviour in the sky for hundreds of Victorian bushfire survivors.

Flying the famous Elvis Helitak above the deadly flames, he provides hope for those desperately trying to defend their properties.

In his 16 years of fighting bushfires, the Californian has never seen devastation on a scale like this.

“On Saturday it didn’t matter how many aircraft you had,” he said.

“There were just too many fires. I don’t know how they all got started, but they’re just everywhere.

There are a lot of good people coming through for those in pain, but there are always the “takers” trying to get something for nothing.

Also agree about the rubber neck morons.

Even after 50 years and the fact that I’ve pretty much seen it all, I despair of the human race sometimes.

I really tend to get unreasonable when I’m sweating like no tomorrow using an axe because we’re waiting for more gas and some yehu drives by taking pictures in an air conditioned vehicle.

Like you say, if you love it so much, there’s plenty of work that needs doing.