Seriously, what is WITH Australia and New Zealand these past few months?

[onlensreflex]

First my roommate's uni city gets hit by an earthquake; luckily he was in Florida at the time. Then the floods and Cyclone Yasi hit my other flatmate's hometown; luckily he was in the US at the time and his family made it out okay. Then flash flooding hits my hometown while I'm in Japan; luckily my family wasn't hugely affected. And now my roomate's uni city just got hit by another earthquake but unlike all of the above, he was actually there for it.

I've heard from him; he's okay and flew home yesterday. I just wish I could do more to help with these disasters than donate money.

Pukamon's watching me type this and just suggested urban search and rescue training. Time to look into it. My dog's probably too old for training, but I wonder if Pukamon could be a search and rescue 'mon.

(OOC: Sorry for attentionwhoring with the disasters; placing Ash's friends was done pretty randomly months ago and then suddenly all this hit. o_O I knew I should have made them from smaller towns. That said, this one hit me close to home as I'm from New Zealand, though not from Christchurch. I've a post in my personal journal about help_nz, a fandom auction for the earthquake relief fund, and charities taking donations for the same. Please donate, offer something in the help_nz auctions, or just promote it. ♥ Thanks, guys.)