Chromecide.com

With the anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters Australia has seen coming up this weekend, there has been quite a lot of air time devoted to the memory of that horrid day.

The Matt and Jo show, a breakfast radio show in Melbourne, Australia, are currently broadcasting from some of the areas affected by the Black Saturday fires.

There are some absolutely amazing stories coming from the local residents there, of luck, of bravery and of survival.

One thing I wasn’t prepared for in the car this morning, was how much creating that Google Map last year really did affect me.

I wasn’t on the front line, facing the fires directly.  I didn’t live in the affected areas.  I didn’t know anyone in those areas.  But just like a lot of other Australians, I didn’t want to sit idly by and just watch the devastation.  The CFA Alerts web site was having massive problems dealing with the site traffic, and it was often becoming unavailable.  That’s when I started making the map.  It wasn’t too long into it that I found other icons appearing on the map I was creating., and I found that there was someone else attempting to do the same thing.

I have never met “Daniel”.  But for 3 days non-stop, we kept that map as up to date as possible.  We were taking the information from the CFA site, the radio and the TV, and adding the icons to the maps for the locations mentioned in each alert, along with the details of the alert itself.

For  a while, I guess it fulfilled that “need to help”.  But what I was not prepared for at the time, was the emotional toll from knowing all of that information.  In relatively real time, I knew where the fires were, what towns and areas were being affected.  I knew how many people were injured, missing and worst of all killed.  I knew how many people were left homeless and were trying to survive in relief centres, while their loved ones were no-where to be found.  It was a very heavy time.

I can only imagine what it must be like for the families that lived there, for the fire fighters that gave up their time, and some their lives trying to protect those people and their homes.

Listening to the radio this morning brought all of the emotion of those 3 days flooding back.  And it’s emotion I’m not sure how to deal with.  At times I feel guilty for even having the feelings I have, because I WASN’T there.  All I did was make a map…