We could smell smoke

yesterday afternoon. When I looked out the window I could see smoke as well. The local fire siren had not been activated although the smoke was strong enough for our household smoke alarm to be giving small blips of sound.
It was obviously some way north of us. An emergency helicopter went up, no doubt to assess the situation.
Australia is prone to bushfire/wildfire disasters so people around us were on alert. There are two State Emergency Service volunteers near us and two retired army people who could be called on. My father is too old to volunteer although he has dealt with a major fire threat to a school on two occasions in the past.
This morning we learned that, as we suspected, it was a grass fire. Some hectares have been destroyed but there was no great property damage. Everyone is breathing more easily this morning even if there is still some smoke in the air.
Alarming? Yes. In the overall disaster scenario however it was barely a blip on the horizon.
And that bring me to what I really say this morning. The destruction and devastation in Japan is beyond human comprehension. We can watch all the news, listen to all the words and still have no idea at all. Even those there on the ground say they cannot comprehend the scale of the damage.
Almost everyone wants to help in some way or another. If you are a writer or a reader, if you know other people who are writers or readers then PLEASE go to
http://authorsforjapan.wordpress.com/ and bid on something. Spread the word.
If you are a writer then consider submitting something for this too -
http://booksthathelp.org/submission .
It may not seem like very much. It may seem like that small blip we had on the horizon yesterday but the smoke clouds can grow larger. So can donation clouds. They can spread.
I could still smell smoke in the air this morning. A donation can be like that.