The Saturday Dom Post keeps a good thing going by asking a few Wellingtonians what they were doing when the quake struck. Normally this type of thing doesn’t get much attention, and most of the answers were as expected (McKinnon talked about his travels, Pannett talked about the children and Ian Cassels… Scrabble…), but the Mayor’s response caught our eye. She was of course in the Tron for the Local Govt Conference…
Really?? You did the drop, cover and hold? In Hamilton? Did anyone else?
The Waikato Times reported that the quake was ‘felt’ by patients in their beds at Waikato Hospital – but as we all know from years and years and years of quakes, you generally don’t hit the panic button on just feeling one when you’re in bed. Did the Hospital not consider evacuation? Seems extraordinary that Celia Wade-Brown responded to the quake in this way up in Hamilton. Especially since her posts at the time of the quake on Twitter don’t let on that she was Mayoral tweeting from under a table?
This is the first I have heard of someone six hours drive away from Wellington or Seddon breaking out the ‘Drop, Cover, Hold’ drill. Did everyone else in the conference hit the deck too? Or was this our Mayor doing a solo flash-mob style drill as others mumbled, “ooo.. the light’s moving…’??
Celia did say “we were down on our knees…” (assuming this isn’t the Royal ‘we’ as it was pre-baby) so if any of the local councillors and conference goers who are reading this were in the vicinity of the Wade-Brown ‘Drop, Cover, Hold in the Tron’… we’d love to know about it in the comments – especially if you caught the moment on your phone!
WCC Watch 