Heatwave and chaos

Melbourne's latest heatwave caused chaos in the city. Trains were cancelled, power went out throughout the city, people went crazy from the heat as well as the normal pressures of life.
We were exceedingly fortunate. With newly installed ceiling fans, closed blinds and wet T-shirts we were able to keep the house to an almost reasonable 31 degrees on the last 45 degree Celsius day.
My poor garden was not so lucky. Now the silver birch tree has dropped many of its leaves following a severe burn. Many other deciduous trees in the local streets are also brown and the drift of leaves in the hot winds adds to the feeling of extreme heat stress.
My water tanks are nearly empty after 30 odd days without rain. However, the tomatoes have survived (with sunburn) and also the sweet corn. So far the Camellias look okay but the Correa groundcover has nothing but crisped branchlets.

Oh I wish for the money to invest in photovoltaic panels to hook up to an air conditioner!!! Then we wouldn't have to worry so much about extreme heat and power blackouts. My house is designed to be more passive solar with eaves that keep the sun off the windows in summer.

A big cheer also to various emergency services people who were slaving in the heat to douse fires nearby, fix broken traffic lights (bad accident) and various other life saving events.