Just after midnight on November 14th, coastal communities were evacuated with fears of tsunami waves imminent. The amount of stories that have emerged so far of people sleeping through sirens is alarming.
How was it possible that while some families slept in their cars on higher ground, there were 20 small boats in a bay absolutely oblivious to the events? How was it possible that some of the newer subdivisions were simply forgotten about in everyone’s haste to escape? Surely we have an obligation to at least ensure our neighbours are safe?
That’s one of the downfalls of modern technology. We assume everyone knows what’s happening. Civil Defence regularly updated their Facebook page during the 5-6 hours that Northland was in danger. Our tsunami sirens worked perfectly and people knew what they needed to do.
However, there are so many people in our community that aren’t on Facebook, may not hear the sirens or may not have even know what the sirens were. Nobody thought to check on their neighbours.
Is it because we are too scared of knocking on a stranger’s door in the middle of the night? But that’s the point, our neighbours shouldn’t be strangers. We should know one another in our community. It’s not about being best buddies, it’s about looking out for other human beings before disaster strikes. Is it going to take something as devastating as what Southland has had to go through these past few years for the message to hit home?
Get to know your neighbours, look out for one another- before it’s too late.
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