A lot has changed since the pre covid world of 2016 in Adelaide and a lot hasn't. I reread these posts I had put on this blog when it was on WordPress. Lismore. Does Lismore come to mind? They are suffering so much more and they too are being pushed rather than pulled . We need to know those people are getting the help they need. We had Jay Weatherill as Premier at the time and he really got into it and did deals for batteries with Elon Musk and we got our state cleaned up and fixed. The fact people blamed renewables was so upsetting and offensive . It was also ill informed and ignorant. Adding damage to an already difficult and damaging situation is not how you help others. Help. Just help. Anything, even if it is a little bit. Like when John Travolta, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan helped with the situation in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina. You don't hit people when they are down. You help in any way you can. Jay Weatherill helped us. His leadership strength got us quickly back on our feet and now we can produce 60% energy needs for our state from renewables. Mr. Malinauskas has been talking about getting hydrogen production going in Whyalla. I don't know if that is good or bad. I don't know much about it and just think of the pictures of the Zeppelin burning. We really need educating about modern uses of hydrogen. In the meantime people can learn a lot from our experiences in South Australia which brought us to being so good at renewable energy. The world economic forum has written about seven things you can learn from us.
Original post September 30th 2016
I am proud of South Australia and South Australians. We have, and still are, managing a very difficult situation for the state. The reaction from Canberra has been highly irregular under the circumstances. The lack of concern at a time, when we were in the thick of it not knowing really what we were dealing with, was uncalled for and remains inexplicable. The continued muddying of the waters is unnecessary. We are very grateful for interstate expertise and practical help which is assisting us rectify the situation. That's why I am proud. We have hauled ourselves through this and we have all been working hard and very positively. We have given each other practical help, ideas, reassurance, encouragement, information. SA Power networks, SAPOL, 891 and Jay Weatherill were giving clear, helpful directions. Even before the storm hit we were told what to do and what we needed to look out for. The SES got a very useful infographic out on social media and have been on the ground ever since. All sorts of organisations and individuals have put themselves out there so we could manage Wednesday night and now the upshot of all of that on Friday. Last time I was on an extended power outage I was on holidays on the south island of New Zealand. There was no power, no landlines just blackness , the thunder, lightning, rain and wind. Powerlines had broken and were waving around so the power had to go off. The same happened here. That was a massive storm. We don't have things that look like tornadoes forming off our coast. We can have devastating winds and we do have storms. I have lived in South Australia for 51 years. This year I have had more power outages than ever and Wednesday night I was without power for 11 hours. Some people are still without power. Others got their power back by about 7.30pm. Our supply comes from Victoria and the generators are like a Clipsal safety switch . They will shut down if they sense a fault. I'd rather have that than live wires or transmitter stations coming down in heavy winds , massive rain and significant lightning strikes. It has caused us to think about how we'll deal with this kind of situation again. I am hoping there is no deal whereby we will get charged for not using enough electricity because we couldn't because we were shut down. My new neighbours , who come from the country, appear to have been running a generator while we had the black out. We are thinking of ways now that we can create supply if the main supply has to go down for safety reasons. I had plenty of candles, my mobile devices were charged and I still had access to a landline and mobile network. Some of that meant I was relaying messages for those who found themselves without mobile or online access. I had battery powered LED lights and I'll be getting more of those. We were not as badly hit as other areas of the state and now some regions are dealing with roads which have fallen away or are blocked and flooding. The great thing about us was we were helping keep the mood positive. We were coming out with the laughs but we were supporting each other. The storm has caused widespread damage and disruption. It is a major event. 891, our Premier and our emergency services have taken this seriously, have kept their nerve and are genuinely working hard to help us. That means we can help ourselves. It is really hard for the people who still don't have power or proper phone access. That is not our fault. That is what has happened because we had a massive storm unlike any other. We do have thinking to do and we'll do it. People with expertise who can help us think this through would be great. Meanwhile we'll wait for the next lot of rain and carry on.
Original post 1st October 2016
The narrative continues. We have been from #stormmaggedon to #adelaidestorm to #SAStorms and now to #SAFloods. Meanwhile reality is starting to kick in and the the enormity of this is hitting us. We'll manage and we'll get through because we'll talk each other through it and we'll share information. The national reaction is baffling and inexplicably odd. Where's the empathy? The care? The consideration? Where's the acknowledgement that what has happened in South Australia is calamitous, catastrophic, disastrous? The discussions can by all means go on in the background but front and centre should be help. Concern. We are dealing with some real issues here which are extremely challenging and we need people onside. We are currently double battling reality and then the capricious nonsense which is diverting authentic care. We'll deal with it but it is pretty unsettling to know this is how we are being treated. There are people who have been frightened and destabilised by the thought of the storm and then the storm itself. Their levels of anxiety and depression have escalated. There are people who are appearing to be selfish because they cannot compute that food had to be wasted in huge quantities and it will take some time to get resupplied. Many of our roads are flooded, blocked, degraded, crumbled, broken or unsafe. Our food largely comes by truck. The emergency services, SAPOL, Jay Weatherill and other organisations are sending clear , strong messages to us and getting the information out to us. We don't need to be diverted from those messages. We are a big , sprawly state and some distances we need to travel to get food or help are long and now difficult or impossible. Some still don't have power or mobile and or phone connections. Many are concerned about relatives. People are traumatised. They might seem like they are coping but they have taken a body blow and so are not necessarily thinking straight so they do seemingly dumb things like drive through flood waters. That message that we mustn't just has to keep coming out. Likewise the messages about checking roads and transit corridors, not going into flood waters, how to get help. We need good, clear information and the state is supplying us with that. We also have had sightseers criticised for taking photos. No, they should not put themselves at risk or get in the way, but it is how we are coming to terms with the enormity of this. It is HUGE. Cosi was so sweet to make a live video of the flooded Brewery Lights. It has meant a lot to people because it is a childhood thing. Instinctively he knew it would help us process what we need to process. If you are looking for flood information Greg Barila at AdelaideNow has established a live feed site:
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