Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The smoke is so thick I can't see down my street despite lots of streetlights and you can't see a single star. The sky is deep dark red despite being 11.30pm. Hundreds of homes have been burned to the ground, towns destroyed, hero volunteer firies have been killed along with many civilians. Many people I know who rely on water tanks have long since run out and have to compost their business (toilet is a waste of water), and pay for very expensive water to be trucked in to keep their animals alive and to drink. Many towns on high level water restrictions and others have run out of water all together. The Batemans Bay fires have had to be fought with saltwater which is bad because it corrodes equipment and poisons the ground but there's just not enough fresh water left to fight with. Most major roads are closed due to the fires, even ones where the fires have been and gone as there is high risk of burned trees falling on roads. So everyone is basically stuck where they are, all holiday plans having to be cancelled. Haven't been able to breathe properly in a month, in ten years we will probably all have lung cancer due to having to breathe smoke 24/7. Once or twice it has looked like it was going to rain, ran outside to celebrate and to remember what rain feels like on my face, but it only lasts a minute or two and the ground is so hot and dry the little drop marks on the ground disappear quickly. All I want for Christmas is some steady rain for a few days, cool the ground, slow down the fires for the severely under-resourced volunteer fire fighting force to catch up with, fill up water tanks and reservoirs, and save the starving animals and dying plants. Please....

Update 11 hours later - we are the most polluted city in the world right now
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Edit - actually that's a mistake, must have been in the list because I looked it up - Batemans Bay is actually 4 times as bad.
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