State of Emergency
By Steve Sharp
In my youth I’m not sure I paid much attention to climate change, although I expect David Attenborough and Prince Charles were already excited about it.
A hot summer’s day in Yorkshire was a treat and not something to be concerned about.
Yes, pollution was an issue and I remember the clean air act coming in but that was just about improving air quality and reducing smog and fog as far as I knew. Smokeless fuel replaced nutty slack.
Returning to the issue of climate change and unseasonal weather, we were in New Zealand’s largest city Auckland last Friday when it experienced its most extreme rainfall on record…by a distance.
We arrived in heavy rain and made our way to friend’s house in the elevated suburb of Ponsonby. A long lunch ensued as we saw the rain move from heavy to torrential, then biblical, and it kept coming.
The first sign something was seriously wrong came as we left their home at around 6pm to find the bottom of their street flooded and impassable.
Fortunately, our hotel was close by and high up, so we made it there.
As we turned on the tv news the first story was the cancellation on the long-awaited Elton John concert, a few minutes before it was due to start and with most of the audience soggily seated. All local buses, trains and other transport were waterlogged so fans waded thigh deep out of the area.
Then came news of homes and businesses flooding, landslides, road collapses and the airport closing.
Film of the airport was extraordinary, with knee high water filling the check in, baggage hall and lounge areas.
The next day the, unfairly under siege, CEO of the airport defended her team from the stranded passengers whose biggest complaint was about lack of toilet paper.
Soggy paper is of little use and no vehicles could get through with dry stuff she said.
Of course, the passengers were wet, stranded and terribly frustrated, but so were the staff and no one could have anticipated this unprecedented event.
Perhaps none of them considered that their love of air travel might have contributed to the problem in the first place.
Her answer to the criticism in true Kiwi style was to get the airport back open within 48 hours. Truly extraordinary.
We escaped Auckland the next day and after a few long detours headed north to the Bay of Islands, which for a couple of days felt like summer. Then the rain started.
Literally as I write this my phone let out a loud alarm the like of which I have never heard, and an official warning popped up declaring a state of emergency here.
Following instructions. Waterproof bag packed. Phone and torch charged. Fingers crossed.
It's a precaution and we appear to be in a safe place but it's a stark reminder the climate change is very serious indeed.
Chris Hipkin, the new Prime Minister, is clearly taking no chances now as the mayor of Auckland was late calling an SOE only after emergency services were already overwhelmed.
It’s worth noting that Hipkin’s appointment came just days after Jacinda Ardern’s resignation, as the party united behind just one candidate.
A far cry from the protracted and damaging farce we suffered post Boris, and yet another example of Kiwi style.
Steve