In the wake of the storm

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 10

In the wake of the storm

After a year of extremes in the weather. Canterbury has begun the new year with a storm which only, just stopped short of turning into a major disaster. With winds a little stronger, rain a little heavier and more 'prolonged, the isolated flooding and pockets of cjamage on Wednesday night and yesterday morning would have led to a serious emergency across most of the Canterbury plains. As it was, many emergency services were stretched to the limits as skeleton holiday staff attempted to handle flooding, debris on roads, and disruptions to telephones and electricity supplies. If many staff had not voluntarily cut short their holidays the •■delays in making good the damage would have been worse. Police and traffic officers, in particular, acted splendidly in their customary role as the community’s • first line of defence against unexpected discomforts and dangers.

Heartening support came quickly from such groups as the Pied Cross,.the. Salvation Army, jet-boaters and the Land-Rover Club. During the night private ..citizens opened their homes to those threatened by rising water, to campers blown out of their tents, and to repairmen in need of a shelter and hot' drinks: Such a storm can turn even routine tasks—the delivery of milk, mail, or newspapers, for instance—-into feats of endurance.

Readiness to help and a general spirit of co-operation appears to improve with each serious storm. This time the Civil Defence organisation and the Armed Forces were not called in. The splendid vyork of normal relief services and the volunteers suggests that, in a widespread disaster, the special agencies would find a consider-

able reservoir of help and good will on which to draw. If there is a lesson from the storm it must be that New Zealand’s weather is unpredictable and hazardous, no matter what the season. Campers who expect a dry riverbed to stay ■- dry in midsummer, caravanners who believe they need not take account of winds, people who venture into the high country, or even the foothills, without being clothed and equipped for unseasonal cold and snow, all risk their health and comfort, and even their lives. Too often there is an assumption, lightly made, that if things “go wrong” others will be on hand to help. Rescue efforts in a storm such as that this week demonstrate that help will be given readily, where possible. But the efforts of the most willing helpers can be overwhelmed by widespread and unexpected events:

Some good has come out of the storm. After weeks of nor’westers the fire danger in forests throughout the east coast of the South Island has been greatly reduced. Few stock losses have been reported and plains farmers are beginning the months .. of potential droiight with the. ground thoroughly soaked. Some orchards have suffered damage. Most crops should benefit-from the rain. '

If the. storm has also served as a reminder to holidaymakers not to treat lightly, the possibility of floods, high winds, and even snow in the middle of summer, that is an additional benefit. If there is one certainty about New Zealand’s fickle weather it is' that storms such. as that on f Wednesday night are likely to be repeated, with little warning and at most inconvenient times. ’