To our friends in Australia:

We here in the United States have for several days been watching the news accounts of terrible wild fires near Sydney. We pray that you are safe and hope that the situation will soon be gotten under control. Best Wishes.

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Thanks Jim.
Not nice up in the mountains to the west.

Some days there's a thin mist everywhere, except that it's smoke. And last Thursday afternoon, the sky looked like a bad bruise, with the sun barely visible.

There's a zoomable map here where I've been watching the spread of the fires. Zoom right out, and they're all along the East coast of Australia. :(