Is the australia disaster being reported overseas ????

bit late with a reply, but its all over the news here in New Zealand, what with 150,000 kiwis in Queensland.
I've been following it on Sky, they have pretty much 24hr coverage, but its getting quite repetitive.
My Dad lives in Surfers, they have not been affected, but he has been saying for weeks that its been raining for weeks.
I just can't figure out how the "authorities" were surprised about what just happened.

As an American here in Gosford, Australia i can tell you the flood is a bad as katrina. 24-7 news coverage so far.. I have talked to friends back in las vegas, NV and they had no idea what was going on.

It really upsets me to know that the U.S. media is the way it is. My wife tells me that when Katrina was in force, it covered their media non stop here in Australia..

What i can seem to understand is "Why?".. Is running a story on the floods here in AUS going to hurt their numbers?

Originally posted by punterdeb
This is not a post for the sake of just posting.

PLEASE...can people from countries other than australia let us here all know if this absolute tragic disaster is being reported overseas?

How much media coverage is this story of the floods receiving. Please take 2 minutes of your time to tell us what country or state you are from and is it on the main news, just in the papers or you didnt even know about it.

Im from New York and have heard lots of coverage of it today, but our country is having its own major story right now, a massacre if youve not heard in Tucson, Arizona. And while the flood is terribly sad I am more concerned about whats going on in my country then in somebody elses.

In Canada we hear about it from day 1 i think. I even saw your President ( a girl ) in a helicopter "checking the dommage".

It seem hardcore, not cool for your country

reply to post by punterdeb


goodness what tragedy!! rocky mountains usa here, & i saw a 1 minute clip on cnn the day the water was gathering momentum (2 days ago i believe - 56hrs) that the pops showed me. i had already gotten the news here on ats.

it may be a bitter pill to swallow dear australians (& rest of world), but there is no one to look to in these days, but yourself. if you wish to be aided, then give help. be the change you want to see & we will rise from this stronger, and more together than we could ever have imagined.

fight for your beliefs.

Oregon, USA, here.

I don't watch TV, so I can't comment on the "media".

But I have seen videos/articles about it from The Drudge Report, as well as numerous videos on Youtube.

Honestly, it's horrible what's happened, but I think Americans have this distorted image of Australians as being tough like Crocodile Dundee or something and so we aren't worried about you. The story just isn't "hitting us" or maybe American's are desensitized to flooding because the Mississippi has flooded so much in the past?

And you seem to be doing ok as only 15 people have died so far, according to news reports as I type this. All the property damage and stuff sucks, but Americans are used to that from all the hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and flooding from the Mississippi.

How does this honest "impression" I've told you so far come across as? Ignorant? Arrogant? Spot on?

Originally posted by gmax111
As an American here in Gosford, Australia i can tell you the flood is a bad as katrina. 24-7 news coverage so far.. I have talked to friends back in las vegas, NV and they had no idea what was going on.

It really upsets me to know that the U.S. media is the way it is. My wife tells me that when Katrina was in force, it covered their media non stop here in Australia..

What i can seem to understand is "Why?".. Is running a story on the floods here in AUS going to hurt their numbers?

someday one needs to realize that they cant rely on this media to tell them of the world. a blatant example of ignorance to this mind, & i wish to deny it. people need to, & hopefully will start doing their homework.

I'm in Southern California, and the most I have heard about this catastrophic event was about two minutes of footage on the television, which I've been watching slightly more of recently.
What really got to me was the blatantly fake expressions of compassion on the anchorpeople's faces before they suddenly brightened and said something meaningless about Lindsay Lohan, which was covered for 15 minutes before I got disgusted and turned the thing off.

Country: Canada
City: Toronto

Coverage: I would say a good amount. All our major stations have showcased the flooding consistently through out the week. News have also been spread within schools.

Just heard about Brisbane on the television news in California.

My heart goes out, the flood looks to be very bad and I can't imagine what you guys are going through.

When people are comparing the Australian floods to Hurricane Katrina in the US, what are you comparing?

The flooding is bad, sure, property damage, yes, but human lives lost? No comparison. 1,836 people died from Katrina, but only 15 reported so far in Australia.

Originally posted by harrytuttle
When people are comparing the Australian floods to Hurricane Katrina in the US, what are you comparing?

The flooding is bad, sure, property damage, yes, but human lives lost? No comparison. 1,836 people died from Katrina, but only 15 reported so far in Australia.

Good point.

reply to post by punterdeb


Yes a lot of people I talk to is aware of this as well as the animal die offs, earthquakes, and volcanic activity around the world here in Hawaii. Thoughts, prayers, and healing energy is projected to you and everyone else.

Anyone that hasn't heard or read about it, isn't paying attention. I have received several articles on it , through various news feeds.

Originally posted by harrytuttle
When people are comparing the Australian floods to Hurricane Katrina in the US, what are you comparing?

The flooding is bad, sure, property damage, yes, but human lives lost? No comparison. 1,836 people died from Katrina, but only 15 reported so far in Australia.

Based on population of the 2 countries it IS comparable.
you do the maths and come back with a % for us.

Originally posted by Lawliet
Country: Canada
City: Toronto

Coverage: I would say a good amount. All our major stations have showcased the flooding consistently through out the week. News have also been spread within schools.

I'm in BC and the national news coverage dedicates a lot to this event. They usually show new videos and updates every day.

Even local news tends to report on stuff like that too. I guess us commonwealth nations stick out for each other

Originally posted by harrytuttle
When people are comparing the Australian floods to Hurricane Katrina in the US, what are you comparing?

The flooding is bad, sure, property damage, yes, but human lives lost? No comparison. 1,836 people died from Katrina, but only 15 reported so far in Australia.

I've been comparing the two mentally because they're both large cities. Brisbane is actually a fair bit bigger than New Orleans, both in terms of population and area.

Isn't that enough for a comparison? Two large cities, two large floods? Extensive property damage caused by large sections of both being underwater?

Drawing a comparison is not the same as saying they're identical.

Yes it is being reported overseas but nowhere near as much when the uk had floods a few years back.

Its been reported here in the UK in many sources but only when there are Brits involved in it, in fact I stay in Dundee Scotland and the local news paper for the city had a story front page about some Scottish people involved in it.

I'm on the west coast of the US. I do not watch TV news. news.google.com is my homepage on 2/3 of the computers I use, though.

Anyone in the US who hasn't been aware of this flooding, at some level, for the past couple of weeks simply chooses not to look through what's in the media. I read before Christmas that the area involved at that time was comparable in size to Germany and France combined.

I read earlier this or late last week that 8" of rain were expected and that the ground was soaked. Civil authorities were advising citizens to listen immediately to guidance from emergency bulletins, as there might be almost no warning of rising waters.

Yesterday, many news outlets were running photos of Brisbane and predicting major losses of infrastructure.

I also listen to the BBC as I go to sleep, and last night heard someone - perhaps the governor of Queensland? - mourning the death of a young child who'd fallen out of a boat, as well as the PM speaking of Australians standing shoulder to shoulder in their united response.

Now, I'll admit I do pay attention to what I'm hearing, but if I've retained this much, how is it that so many of countrymen have retained nothing, and think that the flooding only just started and so their ignorance of it can easily be explained by events in Arizona?

Well, we get the government we deserve, and reading the messages hereabouts, I'm becoming much clearer on how it is that we deserve 8 years of Bush and at least another 4 of many important Bush policies on bank bailouts, on privacy, on peace and war, and are soon to let the administration gut our social security (old age pension) system.