Posts by Matthew Poole
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Predictions like that are made to be broken.
Yes, they are. But the reports just don't sound as dramatic as the ones that were coming after the '04 tsunami. I could be wrong, but it sounds like, fortunately, evacuations took place fairly swiftly in a lot of areas.
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At least 40. I recall the way the death toll in 2004 continued to mount for several days afterwards - the first I heard it was somewhere around 25,000 people, by the end it was well over 200,000.
Remembering that Indonesia is one of the most-populated nations on the planet and was but one of a dozen countries affected, whereas the combined populations of American Samoa and Samoa would put them in distant third place for largest cities in the Auckland Region. The rehabilitation of communities from the '04 tsunami is still going on, too.
You're right that the final death toll will grow for a while yet, but it's unlikely to grow ten-fold. Samoa was fortunate in that the changeover from driving on the right to the left has meant the widespread deployment of police officers across the islands, so evacuation could be handled promptly. -
And often, being the good Anglican school that they are, give the air of faint embarrassment at being the target of Tolley's 'let's-shovel-lots-of-money-to-poor-little-rich-private-schools' crusade.
Thankfully for them when it comes to prat-ish behaviour exhibited by those in power (developers, politicians) Kings gets fingered and rightly so.
Dilworth is, of course, greatly aided in that it doesn't take paying students and only offers places to those from less-privileged families. That gives it enormous moral authority that the likes of Kings can never have. I have no doubt that there are a fair number of Dilworth old boys who have mud on their faces, but not associating during formative years with those who come from families of "means" is a good way to reduce the propensity to grow up as a selfish cock.
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Not tsunami related, but gosh those private schools clearly need the recent cash injection from govt.
Luxury hotel and spa Hotel du Vin has been sold to Dilworth School for an undisclosed figure and is to be converted into a rural campus.
Sacha, Dilworth's endowment is enormous, to the point that it pays all costs associated with being a pupil for every student. Including toiletries. That they've got massive wealth doesn't necessarily hold true of other private schools, so they're a poor argument against increased government funding for private schools. Dilworth could survive without any government funding, and aren't known for crying "poor, poor" in any case.
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Estimates are that wave height will be about a metre. Which is less than the volume of ordinary tidal change. Anywhere that's got a low tide is definitely safe. This includes Auckland city, which will be at dead low tide at 11:10.
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"reports of numerous surfers heading to coast in gisborne"
Do they do mass Darwins? Or is this one just considered too easy, like DUI or playing with matches on a petrol station forecourt?
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"reports of numerous surfers heading to coast in gisborne"
Do they do mass Darwins? Or is this one just considered too easy, like DUI or playing with matches on a petrol station forecourt?
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The Fire Service is certainly taking it very seriously. A bunch of appliances from coastal stations in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato have been instructed to move "to [a] safe location", and there are evacuations underway in Waihi.
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umm, non-observation? You mean like the reported three-metre tsunami?
Also, the experts at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre think one's been generated. I'll take their educated guess over yours, thanks. -
Relax. Tsunami waves travel at jet-plane speed across deep ocean. The epicentre is 190 km SW of PagoPago across deep ocean - less than half an hour away. The earthquake was at 6.48am our time and the all clear should have been issued before 7.30.
Not quite, Chris. It's thousands of km from Pago Pago to NZ, and a tsunami tops out below 700km/h. Updated arrival times from here are:
East Cape at 9.44am
Gisborne 10am
North Cape 10.12 am
Napier 10.40 am
Wellington 10.50 am
Auckland (east coast) 11.12 am
Auckland (west) 11.39 am
Lyttelton 11.55am
New Plymouth 12.17pm
Nelson 12.23 pm
Dunedin 12.31 pm