Welcome to Hell - 2019/20 Aus Bushfires.

[bunyip]

Wanna know what an apocalypse looks like?

Bushfires in NSW. Tomoorow likely to be worse. Several years into a drought. 40C+ temperatures (110F), 10% humidity, strong winds.

youtu.be/C-2vslWvwTU

[papaof2]

Scary stuff. Prayers for all of you in its path.

Parts of California have had wildfires that consumed multiple houses but some of the problem there is people who want to "leave it natural". If you don't clean the accumulated tinder that is under the trees, Mother Nature will clean it by fire.

[bunyip]

This is from the 'Australian Preppers' fb page;

"Hey Preppers,

I got a front row seat to the bushfire disaster here in South Eastern Australia. For personal reasons, we couldn't evacuate, so we've had to work preparing our home. We saved ours but others weren't so lucky. This post is a little long, so thanks for opportunity to share.

Thanks to the volunteer and professional firefighters, tens of thousands of lives and billions in property has been saved. But what if they weren't there or couldn't handle the disaster?

May I share with you my observations? This was a phase 1 of a TEOTWAWKI scenario, so I want to pass on what I saw. For you experienced preppers, this will be simple confirmation of what you have studied, and for the newer members, it may be food for thought.

Most people were in danger suddenly and unexpectedly. They had little choice but to evacuate.

Day 1.

Emergency services cut roads for safety reasons, making bug out a challenge. Leaving early meant escape. Three hour journeys were taking twelve hours, and cars were being checked to ensure they had enough fuel to make the journey away from the coast. Anyone on holiday was asked to leave.

The population concentrated in clusters, at evac points and other safe zones. On day 1 we were at one of these evacuation points, and they were a prison. The fire came within 200 meters of the evac centre, and visibility was down to 10 meters at one point. The fire fighters water bombed 'danger close' to save it. It went to hell, and there was nowhere to go.

At the hospital, supplies and staff began to be compromised on day 1. The staff that could get to work were on double shifts. People turned up with minor complaints, filling the waiting rooms. Real casualties (first responders with smoke inhalation mostly), had to wait. Supplies dwindled quickly. If there had been no chance of resupply, the situation would have been critical in days. The staff were on notice to evac the hospital, but stayed because there was nowhere to evacuate to. The smoke filled the hospital making a bad situation worse for staff and patients.

Day 2.

Overnight the electricity, phone and internet services was lost. Emergency services kept telling people to look online for information, but there was no internet.

Supermarkets and shops closed, and a line formed at the bakery, which gave their stock away. Police and ambulance services tended to patrol close to areas where people had clustered, and the fire front, making their movements less random. Petrol stations couldn't pump fuel, and supplies ran short. The first reports of looting reached us.

Day 3.

Overnight the big supermarkets and fuel stations got generators in. Panic buying commenced, with diesel being reserved for the fire trucks. One service station was charging $10 for a loaf of bread, and $50 for a six pack of bottled water. The queue at the supermarkets was three hours long just to get into the place. Fights broke out in these lines. The meat, dairy and frozen sections were closed due to health regulations. Shelves were empty of useful stuff by 12pm.

Breathing became harder, as the smoke was relentless. This put more strain on the hospital. People began returning to their homes, cooking on barbeques, making liquid petroleum gas a premium. Reports of generators and fuel being stolen from people's homes begin to filter through. The bakery was given a generator, but was only making food for firefighters, infrastructure technitions and first responders. This added to people's frustration.

That evening there was an ember attack within 500m of the centre of the town, it's very difficult to know if roads are closed or open. Once again the hospital is on standby to evacuate.

Day 4

Sanitation services suspended due to the danger of smoke cutting visibility (to add insult to injury, the dump caught fire, sending toxic smoke into the air).

Police presence notably increased in the suburbs. 'Rubber neckers' start to drive around, checking out fire damaged homes. People are moving fire damaged goods, but it's difficult to tell if they own the good, or if they are stealing them.

Day 5.

Power is returning to suburbs where it can be. Defrosted food is being thrown out, people are dumping rubbish in parks, on the beach, and in the street. There is still pressure on the supermarkets, but supplies are getting through. Little things, you take for granted, like traffic lights, are back on. Phone service is restored. Smaller shops are still closed, some of which have taken a major financial hit from the holiday makers leaving the coast.

All this in five days".....

[papaof2]

Scary sequence, but absolutely as predicted by any number of authors:
- most people not prepared and don't see anything a few miles away as a threat so they don't get supplies while they're still readily available
- some looking to take anything not nailed down
- price gouging
- loss of power and mass communications: internet, radio, TV (many cell phones have an FM radio if you have wired headphones so the cord serves as the antenna)
- authorities not coordinated, sometimes as uninformed as the populace (saying "Check online" when power and internet are out)

We're not in an area likely to be evacuated (although there is an oil pipeline visible by its "straight line park" right-of-way not all that far away) but we still go with "refill at 1/2" for vehicle fuel and I store enough treated gasoline to top off both vehicles or run the inverter generator for a week or two (depending on the season and the amount of sunlight) so power isn't an immediate concern. Our default pantry is one or two weeks depending on when we last bought groceries plus there are buckets of beans and rice in the basement (doesn't everyone store beans and rice?). Beans and rice would get boring after a while but that's why spices were created and the inner side of the pantry door has racks on it for 60 bottles of herbs and spices.