Massive traffic jam through Porirua & Tawa

A truck & trailer unit rolled just south of Porirua at about 5:45 this morning, blocking all the southbound lanes of State Highway 1. It was carrying propylene gas and mail. Traffic is being diverted through Porirua and Tawa, and is moving very sloooooowly. Everyone is trying to find another way in to Wellington, and choking up all the alternative routes as well.

It may take until midday to clear it all.

There will be quite a number of businesses with staff stuck in that mess - I know there's a good number of our council staff who haven't made it to the office yet. It took one an hour and a half just to get to Porirua CBD from Pukerua Bay! Will your business be opening on time today? There's a few businesses under the Canopies that haven't opened their doors yet.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4030777/Truck-rolls-on-SH1-north-of-Wellington

EDIT: 10:15 - The unit has finally been righted, but the Fire Service still has the dangerous goods which were onboard to deal with.

EDIT: 13:15 - The vehicle has been removed, but State Highway 1 is expected to remain closed until 3pm.

EDIT: 14:25 - State Highway 1 is now open in both directions, though there'll still be a bit of a backlog of traffic to clear.

Stuff article about the aftermath -
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4034140/Moments-inattention-brings-misery-to-30-000

I knew it was big, but...

Wow, I hadn't realised just how big that oil spill off the Gulf Coast in the States was, until Stuff posted this image of the oil spill transposed over New Zealand.

Pukerua Bay Iroquois crash

Some emergencies are harder to deal with than others. We had been pretty lucky recently that all our major incidents haven't involved losing people, but I guess they can't all be happy ever after stories, however hard we wish.

Our sincere condolences to the families who lost someone on the day we remember those soldiers who never came home.

The Emergency Management Office helped organise for the welfare of the workers on the ground, and assisting with 4WD transport to the crash site - if you've seen our vehicle around town you might be able to spot it amongst the other emergency vehicles in the pictures.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3621251/Air-force-defends-use-of-Iroquois-after-Anzac-crash

Turn your lights on!

Wasn't that fun? No, not really... To use the vernacular, it sucked big time. What awful weather! And it's not over yet.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2437106/Wild-weather-lingers

Bad weather seems to bring out the worst in drivers. I'm going to have a quick rant about people who drive in the rain without headlights.

Headlights aren't just there to help you seen in the dark. They are also there to make it easier for people to see you. If you've turned on your windscreen wipers to help you see through the rain, how about you turn your headlights on so that other people trying to see through the rain have a better chance of seeing and avoiding you. Especially if you happen to have a car the colour of a wet road...

I don't want to have to stop and help out at an accident in the pouring rain because someone didn't think that being visible on the road was a good thing.

Disaster breeds disaster

As if dealing with the effects of a cyclone wasn't hard enough on its own, Queensland now has to deal with a cocktail of 650 tonnes of fuel and fertiliser dumped into the ocean off its south-east coast after 31 shipping containers fell overboard during the storm and damaged the fuels stores in the hull of the Pacific Adventurer. Aerial reports estimate the oil slick covers three nautical miles by 500 metres and is drifting north-west. The fertiliser should dilute well enough that the only thing it'll do is cause an algal bloom, but the oil slick has the potential to kill any wildlife that it comes in to contact with. The shipping containers are still bobbing around out there somewhere.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/2252982/Oil-spill-threatens-wildlife

Still here...

Various people have been worried that the Big Bang experiment in the Large Hadron Collider on the border of Switzerland and France will cause the creation of a black hole, bringing about the end of us all.

Well, they've turned it on... http://www.stuff.co.nz/4688894a12.html

There isn't really much you can do to prepare for the implosion of the planet, but if you'd like to keep an eye on whether they've killed us all, check: http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Unnatural events

Not all emergency events are caused by Mother Nature. Sometimes we're the ones who cause the incident - just like today, where a chemical leak in Christchurch has caused the evacuation of a processing plant, and several city blocks surrounding the site. Nine people have been taken to hospital so far, after being overcome by fumes, and the police & fire service have set up decontamination showers for people leaving the area. I've seen decontamination showers in action, they aren't a lot of fun for the person being scrubbed down - though certainly better than whatever the contamination was going to do to you.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4679493a11.html

And occassionally we do something bad to Mother Nature - there's the Sidoarjo mud eruption in Java, Indonesia, which has continued unabated for almost two years, flooding an area of 7 km2 and displacing more than 25,000 people. There is some debate as to the cause of the eruption, but scientists now blame a well drilling blowout, rather than an earlier earthquake. Oops! Bit worse than hitting the water or gas main with your digger....
http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/36/8/639
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_flow