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Showing posts with the label Volunteerism in South Africa

FIRE TODAY - LIFE RETURNS TO NORMAL - OR DOES IT?

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It's obviously tough for the people of the Noordhoek Valley to resume normal life after a traumatic week, but thankfully our valley seems to be safe now. Admittedly, there is not much more to burn, but there remain a few existing hot spots that continue to smolder and emit white smoke. This is not helped by the strong "fresh" South Easterly wind which supplies the embers with copious amounts of oxygen. Gladly, the same wind has assisted in clearing the local air of smoke and ash so our normal clean atmosphere has returned. If only it was not for the grey landscape ..... Mountainside above San Michele / Silvermine - after Monday's fire - at sunset We are so fortunate that the fire did not spread to our neighbours in Masimpumele and Sun Valley; and also that all of our local farms and businesses survived, thus ensuring continued employment for the people who need it the most. Today's only negative is that there is a fire approaching from the South. ...

FIRE IN NOORDHOEK - ON THE GROUND REPORT

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Living in the Noordhoek Valley the past 36 hours has been rather like being on the set of Apocalypse Now (remember the epic movie?) Social media reports of the big fire particularly in the Noordhoek Valley have been rather misleading and possibly contributed to panic rather than helped he situation. A tweet by @vanhaywood that did little to help matters on Monday: The tweet was picked up by big tweeters such as @KFM and @CapeTown and retweeted without verfication, even by the Lodge itself, which may have retweeted under some pressure. However, this was the area looked like, via a photo from the beach taken at about the same time as the tweet: The fire at 6.30 pm Monday. The Chappies road separates the lower Chapman's Peak area from the mountain. This is how things played out after the arrival of the "Muizenberg Fire" #capefire late on Sunday 1 March. Living in the area as I do with my family, my first inkling of the big fire was 01h00 Monday morning...