Page 15 - AdNews May-June 2020

Agenda
Radio in a crisis
Radio shines during times of stress - drought, bushfires, floods and now the global pandemic.
Voices from different people over the airwaves as floods take hold in Townsville during the largest rainfall recorded for 120 years, a one-in-1,000 year event.
“It’s absolutely torrential” ... “I haven’t seen it like this for 20 years” ... “It is an absolute sea of water.”
The Ross River Dam was hit by 850,000 megalitres of rain, almost four times its capacity.
A directive on the radio: “Move to higher ground now.”
The SES: “We’ve had in excess of 200 rescues.”
A caller: “That feeling last night of walking around your house trying to work out what you save and what you didn’t save
is a feeling I never, ever want to go through again.”
An announcer: “... a police vehicle ... swept away”
“ ... two bodies discovered in a storm drain.”
The storms and flood of late January, early February, 2019 caused two deaths and a third person was never found. Property damage was estimated at $1.243 billion.
Radio, often the only way of reaching the community in a dis- aster, played a crucial role during the floods with 50 official emer- gency alerts.
But sometimes the most useful information comes when locals
WORDS BY
CHRIS PASH
www.adnews.com.au | May-June 2020 15