Thread by @GodlessNZ

(1) Thread No.2 on NZ's #WhiteIsland (aka #Whakaari) volcanic eruption on Dec 9, 2019.

This morning we learned that two more patients have died in hospital, bringing the death toll to 16.

People in this country are really hurting & many are angry about the aftermath.

(2) A large part of why people are angry is because of the Pike River coal mine disaster that killed 29 people in November 2010.

As we speak, experts are part way through the process of re-entering the mine to try to retrieve their remains, and gather evidence on the disaster.

(3) I think it's very unfair to conflate these two disasters and the response/recovery processes used in each.

One was caused by corporate negligence & it was clear from the start that all were dead, & immediate retrieval of the remains was out of the question.

(4) The other was caused by natural forces & it was not immediately clear if injured people could be saved, or what the risk level was on day one.

By day two, it was clear to me that retrieval of the remains is out of the question for at least several days, if not months.

(5) I will wait for the official inquiry to clarify what happened when civilian rescuers uplifted the injured, saving many lives.

There are claims that the NZ Police prohibited further helicopter landings before rescuers had confirmed their opinion that all were lost.

(6) It's very unhelpful to the public that statements by the NZ Police and other authorities have been incomplete and contradictory at times.

I support the Police 100%. Having worked there as a civilian I get upset when they get things wrong.

(7) It's only this morning, on day four, that the Minister of Police has clarified why the info releases about who is missing, dead, or alive have been confusing.

Some of the hospitalized survivors are still not identified.

Few had ID on them & the burn injuries are severe.

(8) The Police's list of who was on the island at the time has the names of at least 9 people, maybe 10 or 11, who are either laying deceased on the island, or are the mystery unconscious patients in hospital.

AFAIK, one of the former group has been identified, a teenage girl.

(9) I'd say hospital staff and the Police have a good idea of who the mystery patient(s) are, but they will not say anything to the public until they are sure. The consequences of getting it wrong are off the chart.

I understand this, but they could have handled it better.

(10) To the rest of the world, NZ is already looking like a bunch of amateurs in health and safety regulation, risk assessment and communication, and disaster response.

Which is sad, because we did a world-class job of handling the many other recent disasters.

(11) I will say this much: The agency that employs the volcanologists (GNS) is completely without fault in this disaster. They duly reported the nature of the risk level before the eruption.

The tour operator says they access that info each day before setting out.

(12) I've been looking into this myself (as I always do, since journalism is dead).

The regulator (WorkSafe NZ) agreed to the operator's policy of going ahead with visits at volcanic alert level 1 or 2, subject to assessment of conditions on the day.

We all know better, now.

(13) I didn't know this was the approved plan, and if I had known, I'd have opposed it.

I certainly have never wanted to visit the island under any circumstances. I can experience and appreciate the wonders of nature from a safe distance or behind a TV screen.

(14) It was known by volcanologists and any interested member of the public that:

>the nature of this volcano is that an eruption can occur at any time without warning

>alert level 2 means don't go there

>10 people were killed on White Island in 1914.

(15) The 10 people who were killed in an eruption in 1915 were sulfur miners and their bodies were never found. That means that in addition to Monday's victims, their remains made the place a grave site that tourists have been walking over for 30 years.

I'm appalled by this.

(16) All the angry, indignant talk this week about bring home the bodies of the tourists and guides has ignored the dignity of those workers from 105 years ago.

I'm a genealogist, so that amount of time seems like yesterday to me. We don't treat our war dead this way.

(17) To me, the idea of not rushing to retrieve the bodies of the recently deceased so we don't add to the death toll is a no-brainer.

I'd love it if we permanently left the island as a burial site, only allowing visits by scientists when drones can't do the job for them.

(18) Well, a girl can dream.

Anyway, it's good to see that Stuart Nash, the Minister of Police, is now fronting the government's response operations & not the senior police officer who had been doing it.

Nash is not a divisive figure like PM Ardern.

tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-z…

(19) I'm no fan of this government or any of the three parties in it. But I picked Nash as a potential future PM, like his great-grandfather Sir Walter Nash in 1957.

I feel a lot more confident about the response now that Nash has started addressing the failures to date.

(20) Economically, NZ is in a bad way. We need to return to fiscal prudence & getting government out of our lives. We must maintain a buoyant & growing tourism industry.

The blase approach to volcanic risk is a local Bay of Plenty phenomenon. The rest of us are more sensible.

(21) Granted, you can find a range of opinions in any region, but I want our foreign tourism customers to know that the majority of New Zealanders will not allow the tail to wag the dog, ie the White Island locals to put visitors at such unnecessary risk ever again.

(22) Personal, individual responsibility is key.

So far I've heard two families of victims say their loved one would never have gone to the island if he had known the real risk.

Well, he could have gone to the GNS website himself.

Instead he trusted the tour operator.

(23) A 2-week tour on a cruise ship does not come cheap. The cheapest ticket for a half day excursion to the island was $229 per person.

The estates of the deceased, and the resources of the survivors, will not have to pay for the consequences of this disaster. Kiwis will.

(24) Kiwi voters trusted successive governments to be good stewards of our money. We took our eye of the ball & didn't notice they were allowing & encouraging volcano tourism.

We are up for about $20-30 million in lifetime care costs per survivor.

And more, because:

(25) There are many indirect costs, such as the hit to our tourism industry, the loss of hundreds of local jobs, and the millions it will take to properly address what happened through inquiries and so on.

And we ache for the suffering and sadness of those directly affected.

(26) I've made clear in every tweet I've made about this disaster that the human cost is the first consideration. Fiscal cost is always secondary to that. I'm just pointing out what those costs are and who is liable for them. We should have made our governments think about it.

(27) This will be a super unpopular opinion in leftist NZ, but I think the solution to our economic woes is to drill, baby, drill.

In part, AU and the US are able to take the blows of disasters and other threats because they use their mineral resources. Logic wins over emotion.

(28) No household, business or country can survive unless rational economic decisions are made.

NZ's main industries, farming & tourism, are fickle. They are subject to bio incursions, markets, & fluctuations in tourist confidence.

It's time to make NZ great again.

END