The days immediately preceding last week’s huge storm were marked by episodes from people who should have known better.

It all began when the Italian metereological website meteoweb.eu began broadcasting dire predictions about the storm that was brewing. It called it ‘a perfect storm’ from the eponymous film and warned of huge waves and 150km winds.

When that was reported on the Maltese online media and people predictably got shocked and panicked, all we got from the Maltese ‘experts’ in the field was attempts to pooh-pooh the Italian website’s predictions.

And the implied message, carried to the people even by means of a direct intervention on Xarabank as the storm raged, was that there was nothing much to worry about except some strong winds and rain.

We say that by pooh-poohing the foreign website, those responsible in Malta were not carrying our their duty as they should have done. As a result, not for the first time, people were left without guidance through the terrible hours of that night. Fortunately, the winds were short of being of hurricane strength. Fortunately, electricity cuts were not widespread. Fortunately, no windows were smashed by the wind and there were very few collapses of buildings.

We are sure that the Civil Protection Department was on alert to go out and rescue people. Enemalta personnel went out to secure damaged electricity connections. The police must also have been on alert. And we are sure there is ongoing cooperation between these rescue forces, and the Army was also on standby, specifically for such eventualities.

But we still say people should have been more adequately prepared for the storm.

Other countries issue lists and lists of safety tips that must be taken in the eventuality of hurricanes or severe storms. Mostly these lists of advice include such things as:

buy batteries and see your radio is on to get to hear any warnings

stay away from windows

prepare boards or something similar to block glass windows

do not get leave your house and leave roads free for emergency vehicles

if you think your house is too exposed (in our case that could be if your house is very near the sea), go and spend the night with friends or relatives…

There must be other advice that could and should have been given without the people becoming unduly alarmed. Our point is that just pooh-poohing the admittedly excitable Italian website was not fulfilling the mission these services have of protecting the Maltese people from the consequences of storms.

It was unfair to have people face the night of the terrible storm with just vague reassurances instead of talking clearly and calmly about how the storm could be faced with the least damage.

As in other issues, why don’t we take a leaf out of what is done in other countries in similar circumstances and copy what others do?