A Warning From Opotiki

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 12

A Warning From Opotiki

The immediate response of New Zealanders to news of the disastrous flood at Opotiki was sympathy for the people of the unfortunate town in their material losses and in the loss of life, mercifully light though the latter was. Later reports of looting will only increase the feeling, and add a sense of disgust, that a few persons were prepared to profit from the bad luck of others. Events at Opotiki are, however, worth some further thought., No community anywhere can be confident that it will not itself suffer some such calamity, caused, perhaps, by forces or occurrences that cannot now be imagined. The question civic 1

leaders everywhere should ask themselves is whether their emergency precautions organisation—or, as it is now termed, civil defence organisation—is sufficiently prepared. Is the organisation ready to rescue those in danger or difficulty, to restore essential services, to ensure adequate supplies, to maintain law and order? We have no information on how well the civil defence organisation functioned at Opotiki; it may have minimised the consequences of the flood. The question is immaterial, because the experience of Opotiki is a warning to national and local authorities to be prepared for contingencies that arise without warning.