Still here...

Unfortunately I haven't managed to post any updates recently, but we are still here. The end of the year is quite a busy time, and we've been having IT troubles recently dealing with the potential security issues in Internet Explorer.

Which brings me to a little thing called business continuity. Your business may be interrupted by any number of little things - staff illnesses, power cuts, server crashes, and even the loss of the internet, let alone earthquakes and other natural disasters.

It's remarkable how something seemingly as minor as losing web access can have quite a significant impact on your work. The internet isn't just for slacking off, you know! I felt a bit lost without it, especially since we'd had five earthquakes in very short order on one day, and then weather warnings on another, and I couldn't check GeoNet or the MetService's webpages to see what was going on. I didn't really realise how often I used it until it suddenly wasn't there.

The trick is to work out other ways of doing things. Have you got another way of carrying on if something is missing? Can you work from paper if your computer stops working? Have you got people to call on if others are sick? Will everything fall over if you aren't there? The usual procedure of going for coffee when the servers crash, just isn't going to work if the servers are going to be down for days. What if you ran an internet cafe? The loss of the internet would mean loss of business.

Think along the lines of "it would be really annoying if I didn't have X" - and come up with a way to work around it, then think of something that it would be worse to do without and come up with a plan for that, even to the point of having some kind of plan for what to do when your business can no longer function at all.

I eventually found another source of internet (my home laptop), but other solutions may have been ringing GeoNet and the MetService (actually talking to someone!), getting faxes etc. There are ways to work around most things - often the old fashioned way.

We've gotten used to the conveniences of modern technology and we rely on it an awful lot. Despite not getting any calls on my cellphone for days, maybe even weeks, I'll still feel paranoid if I leave it at home...

Heard this one

I actually heard the house creaking with this quake, but didn't feel anything. 5.3 is a decent size.

NZ Daylight Time: Sunday, November 30 2008 at 6:08 pm
Latitude, Longitude: 40.48°S, 173.32°E
Focal Depth:190 km
Richter magnitude: 5.3
Location:
60 km north-east of Collingwood
60 km north-east of Takaka
90 km north of Nelson
150 km north-west of Wellington

State of Emergency - not just for natural disasters

As can bee seen in Bangkok, a State of Emergency doesn't have to be just for natural disasters - they can also be declared in times of civil unrest or war. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4775727a12.html

Storms around the world

A tropical storm has flooded one of India's biggest cities, killing at least 10 people. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4774041a12.html

And flooding & landslides in Brazil have killed 84 people so far. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4773621a12.html. One of the major issues in the affected areas of Brazil is lack of drinking water. How much have you got squirrelled away?

You need at least 3 litres per person per day, just for surviving. More if you plan on washing your hands etc. The latest statistics on our water usage in the Wellington region shows that we use 400 litres per day! That's not so much usage as wastage... You should probably thinking about storing more than the minimum .

They're not psychic, but they can predict the future

Via Stuff - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4767658a7693.html

Millions of lives could be saved from natural disasters around the world by the biggest revolution in weather forecasting since the introduction of computers.

Weather forecasters from all corners of the globe, including New Zealand, are joining forces to push back the prediction limits of severe weather such as tropical cyclones, thunderstorms and tornadoes, torrential rain, heatwaves and heavy snow.

Extreme weather cannot be forecast accurately beyond two or three days at present but the 10-year Thorpex (The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment) study is effectively thumbing its nose at that.

Its aim is to develop a system that will give extended-range warnings up to two weeks ahead, providing more time for communities and governments to prepare for life-threatening events.

A giant "ensemble" computer model is being developed that will combine all the best points of dozens of models used in everyday weather forecasting and, hopefully, increase the accuracy of predictions.

Doesn't take much

Standing on Porirua Coast you can actually see the South Island. There isn't really that much distance between us. But having Cook Strait as a buffer can make a hell of a difference in the weather. We got some quite heavy rain at times last night, but nothing like what hit the northern end of the South Island. Flooding in Nelson & Takaka, and the West Coast, roads closed, schools closed. They were thinking about declaring a State of Emergency, but luckily the rivers peaked before things could get too bad.

And while things are getting soggy in the northern and western parts of the South Island, Canterbury is quite quickly reaching drought status.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4771535a11.html

Volcano erupts!

I always remember that line from playing Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs, but anyway... via Stuff http://www.stuff.co.nz/4769601a12.html

The Nevado del Huila volcano in southwest Colombia has erupted, triggering an avalanche of earth and debris that damaged houses, bridges and crops, the country's Ingeominas geological institute said.

Some people fled their homes and civil defence authorities rushed to the area yesterday to evaluate damages and begin cleanup. No injuries were reported.

The volcano, in the province of Huila, is not near any major coffee plantations integral to the economy of this part of the Andean country.

Nevado del Huila erupted at the start of 2007 after laying dormant for hundreds of years. A 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Caldas province triggered mudslides killing 25,000 people in Colombia's worst ever natural disaster.

Another quake, and yet more wind

Another local quake yesterday - I'm reliably informed that it was a good little jolt, but yet again I didn't feel a thing.

NZ Daylight Time: Sunday, 23 November 2008 at 12:41 pm
Latitude, Longitude: 41.01°S, 174.88°E
Location: 10 km north of Porirua
Focal depth: 30 km
Richter magnitude: 3.7

While you're checking that your stuff is still seismically restrained (you all do that, don't you? Well, you should!), you might want to secure anything outside that might blow around, it's going to be another windy night with northerly winds gusting to 130kph in exposed places.

Northland fire

And now New Zealand has some of its own fires to worry about.

Via Stuff - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4767284a11.html.

Rural firefighters are today continuing to dampen hot spots after a bush fire swept through more than 60 hectares of Department of Conservation land at Ngawha in the Far North overnight.
More than six fire engines and three helicopters battled through the night to contain the blaze which threatened Ngawha Village and Top Energy's newly commissioned geothermal power plant. Kaikohe volunteer fire brigade chief, Bill Hutchinson, said the fire looked to have been deliberately set. Fire investigators are at the scene this morning.

Californians return to burnt out homes

via Stuff - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4765003a12.html

Shocked residents began returning home to three areas of Southern California ravaged by wildfires, some finding their houses and cars reduced to piles of smoking, melted rubble.

Three fires have over the past five days destroyed around 1,000 homes and blacken 55 square miles (142 sq km) across Southern California - ranging from mobile homes to apartments and multimillion-dollar mansions.

No deaths or major injuries have been reported and the cause of the fires was not known.
Southern California is in a drought after minimal rainfall for two years that has turned the terrain bone dry. Population growth over the past 20 years has seen once arid brushland on city outskirts turned into housing developments.