John MacDonald: Who forgot to press "send" on the emergency mobile alert?

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

What happened to the emergency mobile alert system ahead of and during yesterday’s wind storm?

One explanation for the absence of text alerts from one government MP is that, with the power out in places, the cell towers weren’t working.

But the power wasn’t out in Christchurch city and there were still no alerts on my phone. What’s more, the power only went out once the wind hit - well after the Emergency Management Minister pre-emptively declared a state of emergency on Wednesday afternoon.

So, there are questions to be answered.

I also think that, from the outset, the state of emergency shouldn’t have been limited to Canterbury.

If you look around the South Island, there are areas that have been hit just as hard - if not worse - than some areas in Canterbury.

The Emergency Management Minister declared an emergency in Southland this morning. But it should have happened sooner.

Then there are the people who question the need for such a response.

I’m not sure if it was just the state of emergency that made things so quiet in town yesterday or whether it was the state of the emergency plus the mega-strike.

Odds on, it was the state of emergency. Which one Christchurch business owner isn’t happy about. They think it was overkill including Christchurch because the city wasn’t as badly-affected as other parts of the region and their takings were down 50 percent because of it.

It was like a tale of two Canterburys yesterday. We had trees coming down and that fire at Hanmer Springs. Whereas, in Christchurch, I think a lot of us were wondering when it was going to hit.

The wind picked up at times. But, overall, Christchurch got off pretty lightly.

Nevertheless, I disagree that the city shouldn’t have been included in the state of emergency.

Because who knew the wind was going to behave the way it did? With that wall of wind that was heading towards the city yesterday morning splitting into two and skirting around the city.

That’s why I’ll always support the “better safe than sorry” approach.

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