Two years ago today at approximately 9pm the communities of Gazette and Garvoc were devastated by fires. The fires ripped through their farms at night and destroyed homes, livestock, fences and pastures. The Garvoc fire devastated communities that had been previously impacted during Ash Wednesday in 1983, with some community losing their homes for a second time.
Although we are two years on and the pastures look green and the fences have been rebuilt, impacted communities are still recovering from the devastation that occurred that night. Some have only started to rebuild their homes preferring to rebuild their business first, some have diversified to off set the loss of years of breeding and some have never returned to their farming business. Some still don’t sleep because when they close their eyes they re-live the night over and over again and others have lost their identity and struggle to understand where they fit post the fires.
But as the time passes the broader communities empathy for the impacted community members disappears and it becomes unacceptable to talk about “that” night. Comments include, “That was ages ago, you must be back to where you were. Your farm looks great.” But it doesn’t feel like ages ago for some, in fact it feels like yesterday and no most aren’t back to where they were, nor will they ever be.
Life does go on and yes for some, time does heal all wounds but it’s a different length of time for everybody and for some, the wounds don’t heal, they are carried forever.
I had the absolute pleasure of walking beside members of the Gazette and Garvoc communities through their first 18 months post fires as the Municipal Recovery Manager working alongside Mat Deans, Recovery Case Manager. It was the most challenging job I have had but by far the most rewarding.
The Six C's 