Why didn't she say something?

This has really made our blood boil - check this out, from today's Herald on Sunday:

Sensing Murder television psychic Deb Webber claims she predicted the Christchurch earthquake - and says it won't be the last of the devastation.

Webber's grim prediction follows a similar and controversial claim from "moon man" Ken Ring, whose forecast of a third big earthquake on March 20 has terrified some Christchurch residents into fleeing.

Mayor Bob Parker and other leaders have condemned such "scaremongering" by psychics, soothsayers and pseudo-scientists.

Even Deb Webber's former TV co-star, fellow psychic Kelvin Cruickshank, said such predictions were unhelpful.

"The people of Christchurch need support and faith from the rest of New Zealand - they do not need to be living in fear from persons whom think they can predict events such as earthquakes, tidal-waves and major disasters," he said.

We agree. We are sceptical of those who claim to commune with the dead at the best of times, especially those who, like Ms Webber, do it for gain. They are, in our ever-humble opinion, charlatans, who prey on the emotionally needy.

But this is even worse - read on:

Webber told the Herald on Sunday this week that she had known of the Christchurch earthquake for at least a year - the only reason she hadn't put it on her Facebook page was for fear of provoking mass hysteria.

She was surprised at the accuracy of her own prediction.

She had been giving a reading to Melbourne woman Carolyn Ronsberg on February 19. According to Ronsberg's notes, the psychic blurted out: "I'm so worried about New Zealand. There'll be a massive earthquake coming soon and it'll split the country in two."

20/20 hindsight is a wonderful gift, but it's not what one would expect from one who foretells the future. And if Ms Webber was so confident in the accuracy of her prediction (which actually wasn't especially accurate; the country has hardly been split in two), why didn't she alert authorities so that they could be in a heightened state of readinesss, just in case?

Deb Webber is anything but a modern-day Nostredamus. Her Sensing Murder TV programme had a 100% strike rate; 100% of cases remain unsolved, and TVNZ was right to pull the plug on it. To now "claim" to have foreseen Christchurch's earthquake but not to have acted on her "vision" is offensive, and is blatant self-promotion of the very worst kind.