They're damned if they do and damned if they don't, aren't they? Last week people were castigating MetService for overhyping the incoming storm. And I would argue it wasn't MetService who were overhyping it, it was the media making an absolute meal out of it. Today, people are calling out MetService for not getting enough warning about the life-threatening rain and winds that are slamming Wellington and the Wairarapa district as we speak. 

Whatever happened to looking after yourself? Gathering the information, you need and making decisions based on that? We seem to have descended into a national state of learned helplessness. Were we like that before Covid? Were we getting to that level before Covid or has it been exacerbated because of Covid? People with brains, people with rational capability, just sitting there like inert dummies waiting to be told what to do and when to do it. That is no way to live life. 

Perhaps it's a rural-city divide. If you are living somewhere where help is not a 111 call away, where you know that if you need help, you're going to have to help yourself and then you're going to have to help your mates. You're not waiting to be told what to do. Last weekend I knew that the storm was coming, you could hardly avoid it if you were listening to the radio or watching the television. So that was helpful. You know, I knew it was coming, I knew what time it was expected to hit the Far North, and I knew the Far North was in the firing line. 

So you get prepared. I knew the power would go off, the power goes off all the time, so that means no cooking, no water, so I made sure I had enough drinking water to last a week, that there was gas for the barbecue. I ran the bath the night before the storm was due to land so there was water to flush the loo. The torch had batteries, a good heavy duty powerful torch, waterproof torch, and I had a grab bag in case the stream on the property flooded or there was a landslide, those were the two risks that I identified on the property. 

I knew where the nearest community centre was in case I needed help or in case I could give help. And I made sure there were very few perishable foods left in the fridge, don't you worry about that, we did not go hungry. I could have probably, like a camel, lasted a couple of weeks. So, you know, you get prepared. And then I turned off the radio because I didn't need to hear breathless stories on the hour every hour, and again that's not MetService's fault, that's the media hyping it up. And I made the most of the beautiful lovely calm sunny day. 

And I knew it wouldn't last. I'd checked the forecast, I knew the weather would change and when I came inside and saw the barometer had absolutely plummeted, I brought in the outdoor furniture, made sure that everything was tied down and nothing could go flying and settled in for the evening. And sure enough at ten that evening the power went off, and I knew it would and I was ready. The power stayed off until the next afternoon. Around about 4pm it came back on and thank you very much to the Northpower team for working in nasty conditions on a Sunday restoring power to the Hokianga. 

And I don't have that much common sense. Nobody would ever, if I had to be summed up at my funeral, say, “Well, there was a girl with common sense." I don't have that much of it, and you don't actually need that much to get yourself ready. I don't want to be helpless, and I don't want to be dependent on other people. I was up there on my own so I made sure that I could look after myself to the best of my ability. It takes very little money, very little effort, very little time, and as it turns out, not that much common sense to be prepared. 

Am I the last person in the world to use a barometer? I really think every home should have one because if you're not listening to the radio or you're not watching the television news or the cellphone towers go down and you can't look at the apps on your phone, then you've got the barometer. They've been around since 1645 and have been accurate since then and still are today. And when you look at that barometer plummeting down, you know that the weather is going to change for the worse, so you get yourself ready. 

I really think we need to drive home the message that it's not MetService's fault if you are flooded out of your home. They didn't cause the deluge, they cannot predict which house in which street will be flooded, that's unfair to expect them to do that. There are so many ways we can keep ourselves informed, even the good old-fashioned barometer which I absolutely swear by. Do not just sit there waiting for people to tell you what to do and when to do it. Use the brains and the common sense that the good gods gave you and stop blaming other people for natural events that can't possibly be pinpointed to your personal address.