Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Paying for the storms to come, in reply to Tet Yoon Lee,
On a slightly related point, while I agree that generally the UFB project was a good idea, I think these problems and those mentioned in the story Russell Brown do raise questions over some of the specifics. It does seem Chorus is going down the ultra cheap and shoddy route in some cases, especially with the home installs.
Good point (and not the only one in your very useful comment). I'm possibly still just elated at finally getting off the ancient paper-insulated copper in Point Chev. We were offline for more than a week after Watercare broke a pipe and the copper got wet.
-
Okay, this is pretty interesting.
This is from the Auckland Emergency Management action plan presented on Saturday. I think the way to read it is that the new upwards flow of information to the political layer (the minister and MPs) was prompted by some "please explain" questions, because it's not standard operating procedure – especially without a state of emergency having been declared.
-
The Herald has republished the post above – and Shayne Currie tells me that Simon Wilson and others are working on the story today.
Which is good, because I'd been feeling like the Herald was kind of missing an important story.
-
Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to Gareth,
One thing I’ve learned: cook with gas. I’ve always insisted on having a gas hob and electric oven. You can live without the oven for a long time if you’ve got a kettle-style barbecue/BGEgg/pizza oven, and, well, you’re cookin’ with gas…
It drives me nuts that the nice F&P gas hob we bought a year before we renovated won't work without electricity, it really does.
-
Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to BenWilson,
ETA: Oh and of course the car has multiple charger adapters, including one multi adapter for every kind of phone ever made, although TBH that was less about survivalism and more about getting a good Uber rating.
Very well, then. I am moved by your story and I shall not seek to ruin your life by awarding a mere four stars.
But yeah – I forgot that one in the post. The USB port in our cheap car stereo seems to charge all the things too. We were not going to run out of devices.
-
Hard News: Friday Music: In troubled…, in reply to Mike O'Connell,
From what I gather, at least four locations are participating: Real Groovy, Southbound, Marbecks and the Cross Street market. Looking forward to it!
Pretty sure Flying Out will be on the case too. Even if you can't afford to spend a lot, it's just a fun day doing the shops.
-
Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to barnaclebarnes,
Excellent story.
-
From Albert-Eden local board chair Peter Haynes on Facebook:
Was going to comment on the blog, but can’t get my password. Anyway, to be fair to John Dragicevich, since he took over Civil Defence things are looking much better. He spoke to the Local Board about a month ago, and with considerable prescience pointed out that the threat in our area is a mega storm. This week is really just a taster and timely wake-up call. Under his direction, Emergency Management (as it’s now called) is turning around towards the community and seeking to engage with the community–hence his visit to talk to us. Just yesterday we discussed the community-strengthening programmes we have as a Local Board–our Neighbours Day grants and Eco-Neighbourhoods were Albert-Eden Local Board initiatives that are now being copied elsewhere–and how we can extend supplement these to increase community resilience. We have always been conscious of the need to strengthen community linkages, as you know, and resilience has been a factor there. But I’ll admit that civil defence hasn’t been as high a priority as it might have been, as we’ve all tended to think about earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis (you’re safe in Pt Chevalier BTW). At least it should be easier to engage people now to the dangers from a much more likely mega-storm.
-
Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to Scungo,
And trying not to think about what is going on in the fridge!
I avoided opening the fridge and freezer until last night, for obvious reasons. We seem to have got through okay there, which is a relief – it's a full freezer.
-
The Vector update posted at 11.30am says there are still 41,000 homes to be restored.
I wish the Herald would stop reporting these figures as 41,000 (or whatever) individuals. It's homes and businesses: the number of individuals affected will be two or three times that.
