Incorrect warning causes major panic
Next time send workers
We’re always asking for it
Incorrect warning causes major panic
Fri
12 Feb
While Aitutaki started picking up the pieces from the tragic battering of cyclone Pat on Wednesday morning, over in Rarotonga a single e-mail was causing a huge amount of panic among locals and visitors when it incorrectly stated that Rarotonga was going to be hit by the cyclone at 2pm. At 10.22am an e-mail from Emergency Management Cook Islands stated (and was read out word-for-word on air a few minutes later by at least one radio station): “Apology for the lateness in the update. I just met with the Prime Minster, Cabinet and the Response Executives. A State of Disaster is now declared by the Prime Minster for the Island of Aitutaki. A state of Emergency is also declared for Rarotonga. Please be advised that all ministries be closed immediately and all responding agencies to be on a standby. The good news is TC Pat has passed Aitutaki, the bad news is TC Pat is heading towards Rarotonga. The prediction is that TC is expected to hit Rarotonga about 2.00pm today...” Just after 1pm Met Office director Arona Ngari sent out a clarification to all those who had received the first e-mail, advising that the correct prediction was that Rarotonga would experience gale force winds as the cyclone passed the island 150 miles away at 2pm. Very different to “hit Rarotonga at 2pm”. But by then it was way too late as the damage had been done as thousands of people were understandably in major panic mode after hearing of the devastation in Aitutaki, with many hurrying to schools to pick up their children early, and many others leaving work to go home early. News of the state of emergency for Rarotonga and the ‘direct hit at 2pm’ was repeated in the overseas media all day Wednesday, and is probably what prompted at least one New Zealand travel agent to advise its agents not to book their customers to any islands in the Cook Islands for the next month.
Next time send workers
Sat
13 Feb
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Newlyweds Petra and Ales Kolsek from Slovenia survey the damage on Aitutaki after spending the night of cyclone Pat hidden under the bed in their room at Samades.
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Mamas wandering around crying, not knowing what to do...A New Zealand businessman staying at Pacific Resort Aitutaki had that in his mind when he was stumbling over fallen trees on resort paths on Thursday, until he noticed a group of about 12 Cook Islands politicians and bigwigs having lunch, which resort staff had stopped (clearing up cyclone damage) to prepare and serve. The man’s wife had to restrain him from venting his anger on them. He wanted to know why they had not rolled up their sleeves and helped clear roads, or go and comfort distressed islanders in their damaged homes? “It was sickening,” he reported.
PUMP UP THE VOLUME
A signaller writes: “Amazing that when there is NOT an emergency situation, one can hardly hear the radio broadcasting volume in some parts of the island. Get an emergency going and the output power seems to boom out, no problems. Perhaps Radio Cook Islands could comment on why they change their power output so radically... budget constraints perhaps?”
DISASTER FUND DRY?
Gossip is always strong in the islands, and at Aitutaki it’s currently the feeling that there isn’t any immediate government money to help them out, because the disaster management fund is depleted, that is, spent already.
SUCK IT, SPEND IT
“Let’s get those nodules off the sea floor ASAP,” reckons a signaller. “If it’s billions of dollars worth we can then have 12,000 members of parliament. We can all fly first class, give ourselves loans and deals, we can each buy a fuel farm... the possibilities are endless. Where’s my mask and snorkel?”
WHO PRESSED THE PANIC BUTTON?
A smoke signaller on Rarotonga sent this in on Wednesday afternoon: “Prime Minister goes on national radio about lunch time to advise the nation of the disaster status of Aitutaki. Fair enough, they have just been slammed. He then says that on the advice of the emergency, disaster, etc advisors, that Rarotonga was being placed under Emergency Status... schools closed, and public servants sent home. About an hour later, bulletins are being issued saying that ‘Pat’ was heading away from Raro, and weakening. The rest of the afternoon is fairly quiet, with no major dramas, or urgent changes to the earlier bulletins. Of course it pays to be aware, and be prepared. It seems however that these “expert” guys really do not know what they are advising...or don’t they have access to some of the better weather sites around?...Why not just have another afternoon off... you get paid anyway.”
CYCLONE NAMES
Cyclones – and hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere – get their names from a predetermined list in alphabetical order for each region. Those on the 2009-10 South-West Pacific Ocean list that we’ve already seen this year in our waters are Nisha, Oli, Pat and briefly Rene before it moved out of Cook Islands waters on its south west path. Hopefully there won’t be a need to use any of the remaining names on the list for this season, namely Sarah, Tomas, Usha, Vania, Wilma, Yasi, and Zaka. In the 2004-05 South Pacific cyclone season, we unfortunately experienced five names in a row within a very short period of time exactly five years ago: Meena, Nancy, Olaf, Percy and Rae (our cyclone names don’t start with Q because there’s not enough names beginning with that letter!). If a cyclone causes significant damage or loss of life, the name is usually retired from a region’s list so it won’t be used again.
GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME
“When the Ministry of Justice replaced the light bulbs in the public toilets after the change in secretary, we all thought the Land Court would be turned around from years of neglect,” writes a smoke signaller. “Well, the light bulbs are out again, not to mention the toilet paper and the Land Court is still a basket case.”
We’re always asking for it
Mon
15 Feb
A smoke signaller writes: “The policy advisor for the government urges the nation to push for more aid money to combat economic downturns, recessions, global warming, etc (CINews 9 Feb). Workshops and meetings held all over the Pacific, to see where funds can be sourced. Why? There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this economy that some objective budgeting wouldn’t be able to sort out. The private sector is strong and practical and carries the load of this entire economy. The major problem is that we are now so much a nation of bludgers that it is much easier to put out our begging bowl and use someone else’s money, than it is to work more intelligently within the confines of what our annual budget is, and work around those constraints. This is not Bangladesh or some well deserving really poor Third World country. This is a place in the sun that has benefits and conditions which others around the world can only envy. But with the moronic misspending of our resources and advice from those in government who really have no idea how to stimulate an economy, it’s no wonder we are always looking around for someone else to fix the roads, water, sanitation, etc etc ad nauseam. Wake up! After more than 40 years of mismanagement by successive governments, surely it is time to take the reins of progress ourselves.”
COMMENT FITS ISLANDS
Over in Aotearoa when Green MP Jeanette Fitzsimons fired a few parting shots at the NZ political system as she brought her Parliamentary career to a close, a smoke signaller reading her comments reckons they are just as relevant here in the islands. In her valedictory speech to end over 13 years as a Green Party MP, Ms Fitzsimons said she regrets things have not changed that much since she first came to Parliament espousing Green values. She says a place, on which we pin such hopes as the pinnacle of democracy, has proved itself incapable of responding to the crisis that threatens us. Ms Fitzsimons says the institution is asleep, often in denial and preoccupied with trivia.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
On Palmerston, the most westward island of the Southern Cooks, the rocks dotted across its turquoise lagoon closest to the main islet have been given descriptive names such as Long Rock, Iron Rock, and Halfway Rock. Look closely at a map of the island and you’ll also see the interestingly named Scratch My Arse Rock. This rock apparently got its name in the late 1800s after William Marsters had a tough time fighting against the wind and tide between the islet and rock, noted for its abundance of parrot fish.
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