In other news today

There was some actual news here today: There was a 5.1 earthquake at 5.39am this morning near Te Aroha, a town roughly an hour’s drive, from Hamilton. I was sound asleep at the time, and it clearly wasn’t strong enough here to wake me up. However, other folks in Hamilton, as well as people in Auckland, said they felt it, and some in Hamilton, at least, were saying that they also felt a much weaker aftershock a little after 11am. I was awake at that time, but didn’t feel that, either.

Hamilton, Leo, and I were never in any danger—this time. The riftz zone that today’s earthquake was in has the potential for causing significant shaking in Hamilton and Auckland. Whether it ever does or not is another matter entirely, and, of course, is entirely unpredictable.

This sort of thing is a good reminder for us all to check our emergency supplies, and I know mine are lacking. While I always have several days of food on hand, I don’t have excess water anymore. Nearly five years ago, I wrote about making emergency preparations after a major storm we’d just experienced. That effort included stockpiling water. Not even a year and a half later, Nigel died, and four months after that, I was moving to Hamilton.

The movers I hired to pack up the house for the move packed all the bottles of water I’d set aside (I’d frankly forgotten about them), something I found out when I started unpacking in Hamilton. The water had been stored for more than 20 months when I found the bottles, so I ended up watering plants with them and putting the emptied milk bottles in the recycling—all except one. The last 3-litre bottle of water went into the bottom of a tall outdoor plant holder I had on my patio so the wind wouldn’t blow it over (it’s pretty lightweight).

In addition to food preparations, I also have to secure my tall furniture (mostly book shelves) to the wall so they won’t fall over if there’s every a big earthquake. I’d talked with Nigel about doing that with the shelved in my office at the last house, but never go around to it. Those same shelves are in my office in this house, too—and still not secured. I was thinking about that job when I checked Facebook and saw a “Memory” about assembling the second set of shelves in my lounge, something I talked about here on the blog a couple days later.

Today, then, was interesting. First, an earthquake happened, not that I knew anything about it at the time. That, then reminded me that I need to beef up my emergency supplies, and finally secure my tall furniture. Put another way, nature added another project set to my list—because, obviously I don’t have enough projects yet. Still, this emergency preparedness project might be a bit more important than most of them—though I’d really rather not have my work tested once it’s completed…

Explaining the Pacific’s Ring of Fire

The video above was posted as part of Vox’s Atlas series a few days ago. It’s informative, though mainly for people who don’t know about this already, and it also talks about some of the unmet challenges. It’s a good start.

Vox described the video this way:

The Ring of Fire is a band of volcanoes and frequent earthquakes that runs from New Zealand, up through Eastern Asia, across the Bering Strait and all the way down to the Southern tip of Chile. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis appear around the boundaries of the several, fast moving, tectonic plates that make up the region. When the plates collide, they create areas of volatility. The Ring of Fire sees more natural disasters than anywhere else on Earth, but what makes it particularly dangerous is that few countries are prepared.

I wouldn’t disagree with anything thing they said, except that New Zealand should get more credit for its preparedness. For example, our building codes are strong, and buildings in Wellington and Auckland needing earthquake strengthening have been identified and prioritised. Mostly they’re either heritage buildings, built before there were earthquake building codes, or ones built according to old standards that have since been toughened.

The point here is that dangers have been identified and work prioritised within realistic parameters: Obviously we’d like the buildings toughened NOW, but it has to be paid for somehow, and the trick is to manage the risk. I think New Zealand has it about right, but if time runs out everyone will think it was far too slow. That’s a different sort of risk.

The other side is preparedness: Making sure people are ready for disaster, and for that the Government has been advertising heavily (some of them shared on this blog) and talking about getting ready. Even so, we all know that people will put it off. So, in the past couple years, the emphasis has shifted to preparing for other natural disasters, like floods, cyclones, and other severe storms, because we experience those much more frequently. Preparations for storms are pretty much the same as preparation for earthquakes and volcanoes, so preparing for one will help prepare for other potential disasters.

New Zealand also has a devloping national alert system, which I wrote about in November last year. They also ran ads promoting the system. However, we got no warning at all of the big storm that hit this past April, so there’s still work to do.

The main missing piece in New Zealand, in my opinion, is community organisation: Helping communities to organise themselves to be able to get through a natural disaster until normal services resume, or help arrives. I’ve seen some tentative steps in that direction, but we could be doing so much more more. After all, in the aftermath of that storm last April, parts of Auckland had no power for several days. That’s enough to make civilisation to start breaking down.

Vox’s video makes clear that the natural disasters along the Pacific Ring of Fire are largely unpredictable. And, it makes clear that doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can do to prepare for disaster. New Zealand is better prepared than, say, California, but we have a long way to go, too.

We must do better.

Related: All my posts labelled "Get Thru" are relevant to this topic.

Water must happen

New Zealanders are constantly reminded to be ready in case disaster strikes. That’s great advice in a geologically active country. Tsunamis and storms that are becoming much worse due to climate change are as much of a threat as earthquake and volcanoes are, and storms are the most likely disaster of all. All of them have the same basic requirements for preparation, and the messaging is now ramping up a bit.

It’s no longer just “Get Ready, Get Thru”, nor is it just about securing heavy objects like bookshelves, nor how to know when to run from the threat of a tsunami. Now, they’re adding specific advice for preparation for disaster.

The specialised “It Happens” site warns that “In New Zealand emergencies can happen anywhere, any time, and without warning. When they do, Civil Defence and emergency services will be busy helping the people who need them most.” In other words, we must be self-sufficient, which we should have known already. The site breaks this down into specific areas, like having enough water, for example.

The video above is a short message on how to save water for an emergency. I recently wrote about storing water for the animals, but the principles are the same for humans, too. The relevant part of the website has practical advice, such as:

Keep your empty water, juice and fizzy drink bottles, give them a good clean and fill them with water – you need three litres of water for each person for each day that you are without water. Don’t forget to store water for babies and pets too.

This is the first time I’ve seen messaging talk about the specific amount of water needed—AND the first time I’ve seen them mention pets. This is real progress. But this was even more practical advice:

You can keep stored drinking water for up to a year if you add non-scented household bleach (half a teaspoon for every ten litres of water and don’t drink for at least half an hour after mixing).

I actually knew about this. In fact, I specially bought a 1 litre bottle of plain bleach precisely for this purpose, and it became a part of our “Get Thru” kit—until I needed the bleach for cleaning. I should probably buy a new bottle from time to time, anyway.

I liked another thing labelled a “Top Tip”:

You can also fill plastic ice cream containers with water and keep them in the freezer. These can help keep food cool if the power is off and can also be used for drinking.

This is similar to what I did when there was a planned power outage last month, when I bought some ice and put a bowl in the fridge. At the time, I figured that in the event of a future power outage, I could put some ice in the fridge again. The ice cream tub idea is certainly easier and neater, even if they take up more room.

No one can ever know when a disaster of any sort will strike, though severe storms usually provide some warning. But no matter the disaster, it’s just smart to plan and prepare.

At our house, we’re much farther along than we were a few months ago, but we’re not done yet. This is a good reminder to finish the job.

Dogged preparation

Every natural disaster reminds people of the things they should do to prepare for disaster. With luck, the disaster that reminds them is somewhere else, or, at least, not severe enough to cause terrible problems. We had that happen recently, and while it encouraged us to prepare for ourselves, it reminded us of one more thing we needed to consider: Our furbabies.

Nearly three weeks ago we had major storms in Auckland with severe winds causing damage all over the Auckland region. That was mostly an annoyance for us, apart for one thing: When we lose power, we lose water, and we can’t flush the toilets, either. We knew we had to come up with ways to prepare for those things, but suddenly we realised one more: We needed water just for the animals.

After that storm, I went to the grocery store and bought a six litre bottle of drinking water and two 1.5 litre bottles for Nigel and me. The smaller ones are in the event of a short interruption like we had last time, the bigger one in case the outage lasts longer. Some people in Auckland were without power for more than a week after that big storm, and no power for a week for us would mean no water for a week. Seven litres is not enough water for us for a week, but it’s not far off.

But, what about the dogs and cat?

I had a two-litre milk bottle I washed out and filled with water after our power came back on, just in case the new storm predicted was as bad as predicted (it wasn’t). I knew that wasn’t nearly enough for a long power outtage, but how much DID we need?

I poured the water from the milk bottle into their water bowls (they all share) and found out both bowls take exactly one litre. One of those two bowls is outside on the deck, and is extra, so the dogs can have a drink after they eat (I feed them on the deck). Their main bowl is inside, in our en suite, and I fill it twice a day. So, I knew I’d need to about least two litres per day just for them—possibly more when it's hot, less when it isn't.

We normally buy milk in 3-litre bottles, so I washed out three and filled them with water, which gives us nine litres of water for them. That’s enough for at least 4.5 days. I’ll soon have another 3-litre bottle to join the supply. And 12 litres is at least six days—probably enough for a week, actually. Just for the furbabies.

But my planning wasn’t done yet. When I went to buy a new bag of dry dog food, the pet store was giving away 12 tins of food for free, and that’s when it hit me: Cans keep for a very long time, and if a major storm hit, say, the day before I was heading to the store to buy more dry food, what would I give them? The recent storm blocked roads with fallen trees, and a bigger storm would be worse and take longer to clear. However, each can feeds the dogs for one meal. So, I now have enough cans to last six days (not counting the food from the fridge and freezer the dogs would probably have to help us eat).

Bella is on a special diet, and I can’t quite as easily stock up for her, but they do make pouches of food for her, so I’ll buy some as an emergency supply. Her water is already sorted, of course.

The thing is, all of the information I’ve seen on emergency preparation has been focused on people, and fair enough, too: They’re the ones who make the preparations, after all. But we’re also responsible for the well-being of our furbabies, and that means we need to make sure they have enough food and water. Until this storm happened, it never occurred to me to include them in our “Get Thru” planning.

To be honest, we’re not quite fully sorted for an emergency yet—though, in our defence, this past weekend we bought a pack of cans of gas for our little camp stove, so we’re acting on what we need. We’re still researching emergency power options (especially for charging cellphones) and an emergency toilet, and I’ll talk about our solutions when we have them. But this is all still kind of new to us, because the power seldom went out at our old place, and we never lost water. This alerted us to new things we needed to provide for.

Worse, the emergency planning people for Auckland Council have warned that a “mega storm” is inevitable because of climate change, and communities might need to be self-sufficient for days, maybe a week, maybe longer, before outside help can arrive. We’ll prepare for those huge events without being over the top or spending a lot of money, but finding the best solution does require some research and effort. We’re equal to the task.

In the meantime, our furbabies will soon have enough water to last about a week. That’s a good, if unexpected, start.

In the event of a non-emergency

Today Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management tested its new Emergency Mobile Alert system, which allows the Ministry to send emergency notices out to New Zealanders. Well, SOME New Zealanders: Only about a third of all cellphones in New Zealand can receive the signal.

Our cellphones were compatible, which demonstrates that even non-current models can be compatible, as long as their operating system is also kept current (we do keep ours updated). So, it’s good to know we can get an important warning.

However, the message (image at right) and the—ahem—alarming tone both disappeared when we pressed the Home button. That meant the text disappeared before I had a chance ot actually read it (I was trying to take a screenshot at the time—oops). It turned out that it was saved along with all other notifications, something that I didn’t realise at first because I don’t get many notifications (I often turn them off because most of them are annoying). Still, it’s good to know they’re there.

Hopefully, I’ll never have to get a real emergency message. But, if one is necessary, at least I’ll get it. Still, I couldn’t resist joking about it:

Just got the emergency mobile phone test alert. Apparently, I’m one of the elite! Well, my phone is, but I own it, so.......

— Arthur Schenck (@AmeriNZ) November 26, 2017

Timely reminder

At 4:37am this morning, there was a 7.1 earthquake off the northeast coast of the North Island. The quake was relatively far away from the North Island, which meant there were no reports of injury or damage, however, it was also relatively shallow and sparked tsunami warnings for parts of the South Island and the Northern and Northeastern coasts of the North Island. All warnings were cancelled by 8:30am. Obviously we're fine, or I wouldn't be blogging at all.

We never felt a thing at our house, partly because of the distance, but mainly because it was 4:37am and we were asleep. The epicentre was a long way from Auckland, and we were unlikely to feel much if we had been awake.

In general, the coastal areas of Auckland are vulnerable to tsunami, however, our house is on high ground so, for us, the main danger is dealing with the disruption in essential services—water, sewerage, electricity. This assumes we’re home when a tsunami hits, of course, but there’s generally a fair bit of warning for us to get home or to higher ground if we’re not home. Family and friends around the country are at various other risk levels, and making contact after a disaster would be a problem.

Events like this, while not a direct threat to most New Zealanders, serve as a timely reminder to double check our emergency supplies, and to “Get Ready – Get Thru”. All of us, wherever we live, are at risk of natural disaster, though the specifics vary from place to place. For example, our risks include earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis that other areas may not face, but Similarly, in Auckland, we’re not at risk from blizzards. The important thing is for everyone to maintain emergency supplies relevant to the real risks they face, no matter where they live or what those risks might be.

Some day, our luck may run out, and we’ll fare better if we’re prepared for disaster. If that never happens, at least we’ll have the peace of mind that comes from knowing we’re prepared.

“Get Ready – Get Thru”

Our Internet connection has been down for the past three days due to a fault in the phone lines they’re currently trying to find and repair. When our connection is restored, I’ll add relevant links.

Fix, Fasten

New Zealand does a great job of creating commercials and campaigns designed to get New Zealanders to think about natural disasters. Their latest series is among the best yet.

The ads in this post are from EQC (the Earthquake Commission), which is responsible not just for earthquakes and preparedness, but also other natural disasters like tsunami, volcanic eruption, landslides, and hydrothermal events. The preparedness part is what these ads promote.

Specifically, they try to motivate people to fix and fasten anything that could come loose in an earthquake, things like tall furniture, hot water cylinders, chimneys, and even house foundations (to keep houses from sliding off their foundations in an earthquake), and it does so by promoting “Fix. Fasten. Don’t Forget.” a special section of EQC’s website with everything people need to know to, well, fix and fasten things.

The ad up top, “Cylinder”, is my favourite of the bunch. In 30 seconds it depicts a variety of people taking a small actions to keep people safe, ending with a man securing a hot water cylinder. “One small action can make a difference,” the onscreen text tells us as the man works.

They’re absolutely right, of course, but what makes these ads so effective is that they use everyday imagery—things completely unrelated to natural disaster—to drive home the point that small actions can prevent injury. The fact the ads have no dialogue helps to make the visuals stand out even more, I think. These are really good ads.

The ad below is the 15-second version of “Bookshelf”. It begins with one of the most powerful images in the series—a woman throwing out her arm to keep a man from being hit by a truck—and ends with a woman securing a bookshelf.

Together, these ads are quite different from the preparedness ads we usually see, which is part of what makes them so effective. They may just manage to cut through all the “noise” of advertising to make their point.

Still, I haven’t yet followed their advice, even though I’m quite aware of both risk and preparedness. We have some tall bookshelves that could topple in a severe jolt, and I’ve often thought about the importance of securing them. I’m sure I will get to it, though I’m obviously gambling that I’ll get to it before there’s a big jolt. I imagine most other people are doing the same.

And yet, if these ads at least get people thinking about what they need to do, that’s a major hurdle they’ve overcome. There’s no way to force people to do what’s best for themselves, after all.

Be that as it may, I fully intend to fix and fasten, and I won’t forget. Hopefully I’ll get to it before I need it.

A good idea

Sure, like many users, I sometimes criticise Facebook, but when they do something right, they should get some praise. Safety Check is a Facebook feature that is one of those good things.

The way it works is that if there’s a disaster or crisis, Facebook sends you a message asking if you’re okay. This is based on the city the user chooses for their profile, or the city where Facebook was last accessed by the user.

Then, the person goes to Facebook and clicks “I’m safe”, if in fact they are, or they can mark that they’re not in the affected area. If they click “I’m safe” a message goes to their friends only.

Facebook released the product in October 2014, and, they say, developed it when they noticed how people were using social media after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We saw that with the Christchurch earthquakes, too.

Social media is a fast and efficient way to let a lot of people know all at once that you’re okay after a disaster strikes. This Facebook tool makes it easy to do so, which is important because after a disaster, power and Internet connections may be spotty. For that reason, I’ve long advocated that people set up their Facebook to allow them to post a status update by text message from their phone, because in a major disaster, text messages will very often get through when a data connection can’t be made, or regular phone calls can’t get through. Good to have all options available.

Whenever there’s a disaster anywhere in this part of the world—usually an earthquake—folks overseas naturally wonder if we’re okay. I know some of my Kiwi friends get a little annoyed by that—“don’t they know how far away Christchurch is from Auckland?!” they ask. Well, no, they don’t, and there’s no reason why they should know. I don’t know how far most US cities are from each other, and I’m from that country! Why should people know distances in a country they don’t really know at all?

Personally, I find it touching that people care enough to enquire after our safety and well-being when something happens in or near New Zealand, no matter how far removed we might have been from the event. I’m as concerned about them.

Thanks to Safety Check, it’s become a little bit easier to let friends and family on Facebook know we’re okay when something happens. I think that’s a good thing, so, well done, Facebook!

The image above is a screen grab after I checked in using Safety Check. Notice the part that that says, “some friends and loved ones may be unable to access Facebook to let you know they’re OK.” A very subtle “don’t worry” message, which I think was a good thing to do.

The approaching storm

Cyclone Pam is headed for New Zealand this evening/tonight, and while it was deadly in the Pacific, it’s unlikely to be too bad once it reaches us. Even so, it’s a good reminder for New Zealanders to be prepared.

Cyclone Pam, which was a Category 5 cyclone, the most severe category, hit Pacific Island nations, devastating Vanuatu, where at least 8 are confirmed dead, though the actual number of fatalities is expected to be five or six times that. The cyclone is in a three-way tie for the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.

The storm is now headed for New Zealand, which it should reach this evening or later tonight (there’s a site with live animated tracking, which is where the screenshot, above, is from), with the worst of it expected in the morning. Auckland is expected to have heavy rain and strong winds, but the eastern parts of the country are expected to get the worst of it, with storm surges and potential for 8 metre waves.

Despite the somewhat hysterical reporting by the New Zealand Herald, the actual impact of the storm on New Zealand is likely to be relatively minor. That has to do with our latitude as much as anything.

Tropical cyclones (also sometimes called depressions because of the low atmospheric pressure) are storm systems that form in the tropics where the oceans are warmest. They’re called “cyclones” because of their cyclonic winds. If the storms become intense enough, they’re called hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere, while in the Southern Hemisphere they’re called cyclones, and in the northwest Pacific Ocean they’re called typhoons.

The cyclones in our region usually mostly affect the Pacific, which is why the death toll and damage may seem relatively low, compared with hurricanes that hit the USA. That’s because of lower population in the region, of course, as well as the less developed nature of many of the affected Pacific Islands. Those factors also mean that when a cyclone does hit them, it can be more devastating for them, relatively speaking, than a hurricane is for the USA.

When the cyclones start moving south, they start to weaken as the move over cooler water. By the time they reach New Zealand, they’re usually dramatically downgraded, sometimes being only a tropical storm. However, even a weakened storm can be deadly. In 1988, Cyclone Bola hit New Zealand, and even though it had been deeply downgraded by then, it nevertheless “created some of the heaviest rainfall totals for a single storm in the history of New Zealand, with some locations receiving more than half of their annual rainfall totals from the storm.” It killed three New Zealanders.

The fact that even greatly weakened cyclones can still be dangerous when they reach us means it was prudent for authorities to urge New Zealanders in the storm’s path to stock up so they have three days of food on hand—but we should all have that already, anyway, as part of our Get Ready, Get Thru preparations: Earthquakes and volcanoes are constant threats, after all. Storms like this one are just another threat.

Because cyclones rarely affect New Zealand as anything more than, maybe, a bad rainstorm, people become complacent. It’s the old, “because a thing has never happened, it never will happen” way of thinking. Still, if one is prepared for disaster as we should all be all the time, anyway, then that complacency might not be as risky as it otherwise might be. There’s no need for panic—just ordinary, run-of-the-mill, prudent precautions.

Making sure we all "Get Ready, Get Thru"—regardless of the threat—is always wise.

Some observations at our house (updated periodically): At 7:30 this morning, there was still some sunshine, through broken clouds, with the occasional gust of wind. By 9am, the skies had clouded over, though it was still bright. The winds were already picking up. By 10:30am, it was overcast like a normal rainy day, though with more constant winds, some of them quite gusty. By 11:30am, the clouds had thickened and the winds became somewhat stronger. The rains started around 3:30pm, spits and sprinkles at first, but full-on rain soon after. At 7:30pm, the rains and wind eased, which apparently happens when the wind switches direction. By 7:45pm it was back to how it had been for the previous few hours. Around 8:45pm, it was all quiet. Forecasts at 9pm were unchanged, with the worst for Auckland expected between midnight and 6am, and for East Cape and Gisborne probably after that. At about 9:45pm, Bella went outside, and when she came back a short time later, she was wet, but by no means soaked. Same for Sunny when she went outside around 10:20pm. It was still quiet. By midnight, the rain had returned and was steady and reasonably heavy, though there was little wind. I heard it for hours whenever I woke up, until 4am, when all was silent, and I thought the storm was over. But at around 7am when I got up, it was again raining steadily. By 9am, it was mere sprinkles and by 10am, the deck was already starting to dry out. And that concludes this particular list of observations at our house.

Tsunami safety in Auckland

Much of coastal New Zealand is at risk of tsunami, and a lot of Auckland, which is built on an isthmus, is particularly vulnerable. Now we have a tool to evaluate that risk.

Auckland Council’s Civil Defence and Emergency Management has made an easy way to evaluate the threat from tsunami. Aucklanders need only go to the Tsunami Evacuation Maps, then click on their Local Board area. What pops up is a map of that Local Board area, often with squares drawn around specific areas that have some tsunami risk. Clicking on one of the squares (if any) opens a downloadable PDF map of that specific area, showing the risks within that area.

Risk areas are marked in one of three colours: Red is a Shore Exclusion Zone and should be avoided for 24 hours after an earthquake. Next are the Orange Evacuation Zone and the Yellow Evacuation Zone. Council advise that if the Red and Orange Zones need to be evacuated, there will be sufficient time to issue a warning. That may not be the case with the Yellow Zone—or any zone in a severe earthquake.

Their specific advice is that “In the case of a large earthquake (one it is hard to stand up in), unusual noises from the ocean, or changes in the ocean (e.g. the ocean rushing in or out), or you feel a weak, rolling earthquake that lasts for more than a minute,” then people should “Evacuate all zones. A wave may arrive within minutes or take more than an hour to arrive. The bottom line, as always, is to be prepared to move quickly because time to get to safety may be short.”

Earlier today, I looked at the map for our specific area and found we’re well within a part of the area deemed to be safe. There’s a Shore Exclusion Zone a few minutes away, but the nearest Orange or Yellow Zone is quite a way from us. The infamous hilly terrain of Auckland’s North Shore definitely works to our advantage, keeping us safe from tsunami risk.

I knew all this already, having looked at risk maps in the past, but I think it’s great that Auckland Council has made it so easy for anyone within the Council’s borders to check out tsunami risks for themselves. It makes it that much easier to Get Ready, Get Thru.

In the event of an emergency

Ever since the earthquake swarm in Central New Zealand over the past few days, there’s been renewed interest in preparedness and the natural disaster risks we face. Today I’m taking a look at both, and a bit more.

First, though, this post from GeoNet pretty well explains what's been going on in central New Zealand recently, what they know and what they don't know. They’re really getting good at explaining this stuff.

In the video above, faultlines and earthquakes in New Zealand are explained by Kelvin Berryman, from GNS Science. Earlier this year, I posted two videos about the earthquake and volcano risks for Auckland. Taken together, these videos explain what risks we face.

Knowing the risks is one thing, being prepared for them is another. I’ve frequently mentioned Get Thru, the official Civil Defence website to help New Zealanders prepare for natural disaster. Most of the information is relevant for anyone, anywhere. I’ve also talked before about how if one is in an emergency, sending a text message is more likely to work than trying to phone someone. This is because power may be disrupted, and also because the networks become jammed.

So, I suggested that after waiting awhile to let people needing help get through, it could be a good idea to use text messages to send a quick update to Twitter and Facebook to let a lot of people know all at once that you’re okay. And, again, I must stress: If you’re okay and not in danger, DON’T text: There may be people in dire need of help, so please stay out of their way.

When I first talked about this strategy, I also said that it’s important to keep your cellphone fully charged—at all times, if possible. That’s true, but I saw a Tweet after the largest quake this weekend that pointed out a few more things: Wifi connections and Bluetooth drain the battery, so in an emergency, turn them off. Also, turn down the brightness of the phone’s display. This will help preserve battery life, because in an emergency no one can know how long it will be until the phone can be charged.

Okay, so knowing the risks and being prepared are important, but the final piece is knowing that something has happened. GeoNet Quake is an App available for iOS and Android that displays earthquake activity. If you allow the App to send push notifications, it will let you know anytime there’s any sort of earthquake anywhere in New Zealand, or you can use filters. For example, I’d select Auckland as well as strong quakes anywhere so it doesn’t tell me about every little weak quake anywhere in the country.

Here in Auckland, we have an Auckland Civil Defence App available for iOS Devices (I don’t know if they’ve created an Android version). The App isn’t perfect, but it is a way to find out about any kind of civil defence emergency in the Auckland region.

So, the thing is to know the risks, to prepare for them and to be aware of dangers as they happen. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet and social media, all of these are easy to do. Actually doing them could save lives.

Finally, below is a more lighthearted advice video from a guy who’s the partner of a guy I follow on Twitter. Preparedness is important, but that doesn’t mean we have to be dour about it!

Get Ready, Get Thru!

The ShakeOut

Today was the New Zealand ShakeOut, a national earthquake drill. At 9:29am, we were to drop, cover and hold. Around 1.3 million Kiwis took part. We took part at home, which confused the dogs, but which was otherwise fine.


There are several things that I thought worked well: A couple minutes before the start, Civil Defence Tweeted to get ready. At 9:29am, the radio station NewstalkZB and TVNZ’s TV One both played the Civil Defence emergency sound (for a few seconds). And—that was it.

Here’s what could have been better: A status update on Facebook, either like Twitter or as it began. Last week, Auckland Civil Defence launched an iPhone App that, among other things, can transmit emergency warnings. It was silent, missing a great opportunity to test the system in real life.

Civil Defence says they’re not planning on making this an annual event, and that’s quite possibly a good idea, since having them too often might make people as complacent as having no drills at all. But when they do another drill, here’s what I’d like to see:

• Use of social media as if a real emergency was happening: They would probably need a disclaimer, but they should send out emergency notices as if the threat was real.
• Also, they should activate emergency alert on the phone app (hopefully they’ll have an Android version by then, too). They really need to test it as if there was a large-scale emergency because we don’t want it failing if there ever is one.
• Pick a better date. This year, the event was at 9:26am on September 26—9:26, 9/26, which would be catchy were it not for one thing: New Zealand writes its dates the other way around (26 September, not September 26; weirdly, 26/9 is the 269th day of the year…). So, they had to resort to the convoluted “ 9:26-26:9”. I think they should pick something easier to remember, like 10:10am on October 10) 10:10 on 10/10. I may be in the minority on that one, though.

Still, the effort raised awareness, which is always a good thing. So I think it was a good first effort, but we have to keep awareness going. The “Get Ready, Get Thru” site has great resources to help people prepare.

And, yes, I did feel a little silly crawling under my desk at 9:26am.

The children teach well

This new ad is part of New Zealand’s Get Thru campaign and is designed to remind people—teach them, actually—what to do in the event of an earthquake. Apparently, their review of the Canterbury earthquakes found that too few people knew what to do to protect themselves when an earthquake hits.

While it might seem that this wouldn’t protect people if the building they’re in collapses, the reality is that most modern buildings are built to withstand an earthquake, so the “Triangle of Life” method isn’t necessarily the most important survival technique. Instead, people are most at risk from falling objects, and "Drop, Cover and Hold" will help keep them safe from injury—and possible death.

Get Thru’s advertising has been focusing mainly on encouraging Kiwis to “Get Ready, Get Thru”. Advertising with specific survival techniques is a great idea, and using kids to do it is brilliant: Instead of tuning out, cynical adults stop and say, “aw, look at those cute kids!” and then absorb the message. Kids do, too.

“Get Ready, Get Thru” are also promoting New Zealand’s largest-ever earthquake drill, and what they say is the world’s first nationwide drill, called the “New Zealand ShakeOut”. It will be held on Wednesday, September 26 at 9:26am, and people at home, work and school are encouraged to practice "Drop, Cover and Hold".

And if nothing else, we now know that earthquakes cause salamis.

Getting through

The New Zealand government has long advised Kiwis to “Get Ready, Get Thru”, to be prepared for natural disasters. The information is in the Yellow Pages—always available, even without electricity and for people who use their Yellow Pages as a doorstop.

And yet, there’s more.

I’ve written before about how I’ve used social media to let my overseas friends know we’re okay. Something about this disaster that has most touched me, and broken my heart, are the Tweets from people looking for folks they cannot locate.

And then it hit me: Why not use social media in the event of an emergency?

I’ve long had my Twitter account set up so I could Tweet by text message. But it’s also possible to change a Facebook status by text, too, and I’ve now set-up my Facebook account so I can do that.

In any emergency, text messages are more likely to get through than voice calls. So, it occurred to me, a text message to Twitter and/or Facebook can let a lot of people know all at once that one is okay and safe. That’s why I set up Facebook for status updates.

To be honest, it also occurred to me that if one is trapped in a collapsed building, then surely letting a LOT of people know has got to be a good thing. I can’t advocate using social media as a way to let people know you’re trapped, but hey: It can’t hurt!

For all this to work, one more thing is critical: KEEP YOUR CELLPHONE CHARGED! I keep my cellphone on the charger whenever I’m not walking around. It’s a good idea to keep it on a charger at home, at work or in the car. The point is, a fully-charged cellphone is invaluable if one is trapped, so it makes sense to keep it charged.

The whole point in all this is, if you’re prepared, you can get through anything. So, get ready, get through. Your life—or that of someone you love—may depend on it.

I demand a refund

It’s a common enough feeling: I watched a TV programme that was so awful that my first thought was, “well, that’s 90 minutes of my life I’ll never get back”. TV3 owes me a refund.

Tonight TV3 presented a “special” called “Eruption,” a programme that was supposedly part of the “Get Thru” campaign this week. But it was so awful, so cringeworthy, so unbelievably bad that it would leave Aucklanders with the absolute certainty that there’s nothing to worry about.

I honestly don’t know where the blame lies—the terrible writing, bad direction, lame acting—but there’s absolutely nothing to redeem this dreck. Even the special effects were amateurish and silly. One of the reasons I watched to the end was that I thought that surely they’d at least have a good eruption sequence; I was wrong.

The makers packed—or is it padded?—their thin script with three separate melodramas, apparently to make us identify with “ordinary” people: Stereotypical Asians, stereotypical brown people, and a stereotypical eccentric scientist, Clive, who sees the looming disaster that his colleagues routinely dismiss even though Clive screams “there are lives at stake!”

Eventually Clive’s colleagues come to realise he’s right (of course), but no worries: Apparently Auckland has been evacuated, anyway. The only people who seem to die are two kids, a policeman, Clive, and an older Chinese lady. Also, apart from a few rocks crashing here there, there’s no damage (a late shot even shows a new, small volcano in the harbour with, apparently, the same boats that were in the pre-eruption shots). A shot with what we must assume is supposed to be a pyroclastic flow, apparently is relatively harmless, apart from causing four of the implied deaths: A video camera continues to record through and is just just fine after it’s hit, because it’s merely knocked over (um, but it killed Clive?!).

A good movie about an eruption in Auckland could certainly be made. New Zealand has plenty of stellar acting talent, special effects wizards, and craftspeople of every description. Why did this one fail so badly? It could be that the makers, the Gibson Group, who are better known for often low-brow reality TV, cheaped-out. Maybe they simply don’t care about story, acting—the usual sorts of things that kinda matter for TV drama.

I’m not including any links. The On Demand can’t be watched outside of New Zealand and I’d never dream of subjecting anyone to this shite. Aucklanders, do yourself a favour: If you’ve been lucky enough to miss this not-so-special, go to the Get Thru website instead. It’s a whole lot more entertaining.

P.S. TV3, if you give me a full refund of that wasted time, I’ll consider toning down this post.

Burning ring of fire

When it comes to the spectre of potential natural disaster, the developed world is roughly divided into two parts: Those who worry about their possible dramatic demise, and those who like to make fun of and belittle those who worry. They’re both extremes, the first worried about what may never happen, and the latter who blithely dismiss the existence of even real threats.

The truth, as it so often is, lies somewhere in the middle. Here in New Zealand, the entire country is potentially at risk for something: Earthquakes and tsunamis pretty much everywhere, volcanoes in most of the North Island, plus routine dangers of cyclones, floods and even snowstorms in parts of the country. It makes simple, prudent sense to be prepared for such events, and that’s what the Get Thru website and campaign are all about.

It’s easy to make fun of those who worry obsessively about potential natural disasters, but some people make fun of even prudent preparations. Here’s the thing: New Zealand is a geologically-active land in the midst of a very geologically active region—the Pacific Ring of Fire. The two most recent South Pacific earthquakes happened in the same region, geographically, as New Zealand.

The threats to New Zealand and the South Pacific are real and potentially lethal. That’s a fact, though there’s also no reason to obsess about it. But neither is it anything to make light of. After all, sooner or later, some day, the doomsayers may be right.