I'm pretty sure they came about during Covid, I can't recall them before then you might, but I think it was pretty much a Covid response and that's continued to include any other times where lives, property or health are at serious risk. Over the past week.
Aucklander’s have received about four or five emergency alerts on their phones, and I'll tell you what, they give you an absolute conniption when they start screeching. You know it takes you right back, the adrenaline surges through, you think, fight or flight ... okay there's bad weather coming. Well, yes, a cyclone had been forecast to be arriving over the North Island. So, you would imagine with a tropical cyclone bad weather comes - thunderstorms, the potential for flooding.
And then the next lot of emergency alerts came to warn of the potentials of dangerous gases as a result of a recycling plant in a suburb of Auckland going up in flames and once that fire started, many, many suburbs around the fire were advised to stay inside and then another alert gave the all clear sometime later.
I do understand that Civil Defence is damned if they do and damned if they don't. Some Aucklander’s were asking why they weren't warned about the severe thunderstorms and deluges on the Friday night of Easter weekend. But surely, we all knew that a cyclone was sitting over the North Island, and cyclones bring rain and thunderstorms. But there was criticism because they hadn't been warned, so therefore we got warnings up the Ying Yang in response.
Meteorologists defended themselves, saying well, thunderstorms are notoriously difficult to predict, and weather is notoriously difficult to predict. We saw that with Gabrielle as well. In February 2023, the Esk River in Hawkes Bay burst its banks and flooded the entire valley. Hundreds of Hawkes Bay residents woke in the middle of a nightmare, with water surging through their homes, and there was no alert, no warning, they hadn't been evacuated from the area, and yet the cyclone had been predicted. Schools had been closed in Hamilton and Tauranga and those areas were unaffected but Hawkes Bay was absolutely hammered. It's an imperfect science, an imprecise and inexact science.
Are we depending far too much on meteorologists who can give you a broad spectrum? - we can expect thunderstorms, we can expect electric storms, we can expect heavy rain over the next week, we can't tell you that it's going to arrive at your house at this time, so be prepared. And I wonder if too many people are expecting that from authorities and from decision makers.
We've become very used to having people tell us what we should do, how we should do it, to keep ourselves safe. I'm not entirely sure you can do that with weather. It is unpredictable. It changes. Meteorologists will tell you that they can really only give you a broad spectrum. And if you're depending on government agencies to tell you what to do and where to go and how you should cope, I think that way lies disaster, really. Because you'll think, well, I haven't had a warning, so I should be fine. People will let me know if I'm in danger and you start to lose your Spidey instinct, you start to lose your Spidey senses.
Too many alerts are going to mean that people will just switch off. They'll either switch off their phones and say I'm not going to have my heart racing and my pulse racing and the adrenaline surging through me for a fire that's happening ten suburbs over that really doesn't affect me. If we start to switch off, then again, emergency services will be blamed because they sent out too many. I suppose it's helpful having someone to blame other than God and the weather?
But when did weather become such a big deal that it dominates the news. Meteorologists are becoming the new public health officials. And when did we stop using our common sense and relying on government agencies to tell us what to do in weather. Do you need to know through your emergency mobile alerts, what is happening? Does that give you the opportunity to take precautions? What purpose does the agency serve? I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
Aucklander’s have received about four or five emergency alerts on their phones, and I'll tell you what, they give you an absolute conniption when they start screeching. You know it takes you right back, the adrenaline surges through, you think, fight or flight ... okay there's bad weather coming. Well, yes, a cyclone had been forecast to be arriving over the North Island. So, you would imagine with a tropical cyclone bad weather comes - thunderstorms, the potential for flooding.
And then the next lot of emergency alerts came to warn of the potentials of dangerous gases as a result of a recycling plant in a suburb of Auckland going up in flames and once that fire started, many, many suburbs around the fire were advised to stay inside and then another alert gave the all clear sometime later.
I do understand that Civil Defence is damned if they do and damned if they don't. Some Aucklander’s were asking why they weren't warned about the severe thunderstorms and deluges on the Friday night of Easter weekend. But surely, we all knew that a cyclone was sitting over the North Island, and cyclones bring rain and thunderstorms. But there was criticism because they hadn't been warned, so therefore we got warnings up the Ying Yang in response.
Meteorologists defended themselves, saying well, thunderstorms are notoriously difficult to predict, and weather is notoriously difficult to predict. We saw that with Gabrielle as well. In February 2023, the Esk River in Hawkes Bay burst its banks and flooded the entire valley. Hundreds of Hawkes Bay residents woke in the middle of a nightmare, with water surging through their homes, and there was no alert, no warning, they hadn't been evacuated from the area, and yet the cyclone had been predicted. Schools had been closed in Hamilton and Tauranga and those areas were unaffected but Hawkes Bay was absolutely hammered. It's an imperfect science, an imprecise and inexact science.
Are we depending far too much on meteorologists who can give you a broad spectrum? - we can expect thunderstorms, we can expect electric storms, we can expect heavy rain over the next week, we can't tell you that it's going to arrive at your house at this time, so be prepared. And I wonder if too many people are expecting that from authorities and from decision makers.
We've become very used to having people tell us what we should do, how we should do it, to keep ourselves safe. I'm not entirely sure you can do that with weather. It is unpredictable. It changes. Meteorologists will tell you that they can really only give you a broad spectrum. And if you're depending on government agencies to tell you what to do and where to go and how you should cope, I think that way lies disaster, really. Because you'll think, well, I haven't had a warning, so I should be fine. People will let me know if I'm in danger and you start to lose your Spidey instinct, you start to lose your Spidey senses.
Too many alerts are going to mean that people will just switch off. They'll either switch off their phones and say I'm not going to have my heart racing and my pulse racing and the adrenaline surging through me for a fire that's happening ten suburbs over that really doesn't affect me. If we start to switch off, then again, emergency services will be blamed because they sent out too many. I suppose it's helpful having someone to blame other than God and the weather?
But when did weather become such a big deal that it dominates the news. Meteorologists are becoming the new public health officials. And when did we stop using our common sense and relying on government agencies to tell us what to do in weather. Do you need to know through your emergency mobile alerts, what is happening? Does that give you the opportunity to take precautions? What purpose does the agency serve? I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
Follow the money.
The emergency alerts are a waste of time and have a track record of saving absolutely nothing.
The only action that ever happens is during the five plus years it takes to clean up the events mess and rate increases to cover the cost of treating it like radioactive meltdown corium.
It's again more bureaucratic nonsense that serves no other purpose than trying to justify the existence of an entity no one needs.
Thank you kerre. I thought I was the only one who thought like this. I was woken up by that dreadful screech at about 5am about a year ago telling me that there was a fire three or four suburbs away and to keep windows and doors closed.. You could not smell a thing. It was nonsense. So I even rang civil defence and my phone company to say that I no longer want to receive these alarms at all. Civil defence smuggly told me that you can't turn them off. This is big brother trying to control everyone like in the book 1984.
Tip for everyone re the weather: use google news and type in the suburb or city you are in. I have found it to be 95% accurate. I notice whenever nz herald reports that " the storm of the century is coming, to Auckland" I just look at google weather which will tell me that light rain is predicted and moderate winds of 39km. Surprise surprise, google is the one who gets it right.
All this and yet they’ll have you believe that they can tell you the average temperature 100 years from now 🤔
Part of the problem was that two of the four storm alerts were issued with incorrect information and expired within 10 - 15 minutes. Correction alerts were then issued. I don't mind receiving alerts, but if you're going to send them proof-read them and make sure they're worded correctly before doing so.
I think it's related to climate change hysteria. Every storm must be due to climate change etc. Weather happens but it must be reported to justify the hysteria
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