To be honest, there are a lot of other things I want to be talking about, and we will try and get to them all later.

But the Auckland mess, which may or may not be a bigger mess as of today or tomorrow, depending on the forecast, and its accuracy is starting to take on a life of its own.

Schools are closed until next week - is that an overreaction?

We have any number of inquiries and apologies from a slew of people and agencies - is that an overreaction?

I got a screaming alarm on my phone Sunday night warning me about weather that, as it turned out, didn’t happen - was that an overreaction?

Just for the record, especially for those of you outside of the Auckland region, Friday night was a big event, a lot of people got affected, a lot of claims will be lodged, a lot of money will be paid out.

A lot of hours have, and will go into, cleaning up.

It wasn’t just Auckland of course, it was Northland and also Coromandel, evens parts of the central North Island.

But in that small detail is part of the issue.

Because too much of the media is based in Auckland it gets disproportionate coverage.

Yes it was bad but most of it got sorted a couple of days ago. The local mall yesterday was flat out like it is on any long weekend day with shoppers, browsers, lunchers - life was normal. Life for the vast, vast majority of people is normal.

It's not to dismiss the carnage. But given the political turn of events, someone has to provide a bit of perspective.

Agencies didn’t do their jobs but were they ever going to? Government and local agencies tend to be useless.

Auckland Transport told you to drive to Elton John for God sake. They're useless!

Waka Kotahi went home mid crisis, until a minister stepped in.

The Auckland mayor may or may not have been M.I.A, the MetService didn’t call the water volumes and emergency management were God knows where.

But that’s what you get from the mediocrity that passes for leadership these days. This isn't the first time a weather or natural emergency has been badly handled and it won't be the last.

You get two reactions from them; either it's nothing, and when you get nothing you get the second reaction; anger.

Anger bubbles up, then panic, which is what we are now witnessing, schools closed, city shut down.

Arse covering all over the place.

The second reaction isn't justified but is offered up to make up for the first reaction.

One of the bigger mistakes those who are upset made was expecting more from a bunch of middle managers and clipboarders.