Surprised at lack of mainstream media coverage of Helene

[notanothernamechange24]

Is anyone else surprised by the lack of media coverage following the hurricane in America a week ago?
The images coming out of western North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Florida are really shocking.
Multiple towns destroyed. Roads washed away. Power lines down. Trees and debris everywhere.
Over 200 people are known to have died. 1400 more are still listed as missing.

But barely any mention on the news? Or am I just missing it?

Same with the flooding in Nepal. Mentioned once and then barely anything since.

Yes I thought the same. Apparently 100,000 people are without power 😮

Maybe we're just getting used to it.

The BBC had a fair bit of coverage from just before it hit land, to the damage done, to Bidens pledge of financial support.

I think the breadth of TV and radio news we get is shit. Whole countries and regions that you never hear anything about.

I agree. It's a hugely devastating event. But I think all eyes are on the middle east right now.

The sheer level of devastation is almost incomprehensible. Sounds like there are still places they can't reach even a week on. Rebuilding the infrastructure alone will take months or years.

Tampa, Florida is about to be hit again, they've barely scratched the surface of the cleanup in the aftermath of Helene. My sister lives in that area and, as of current predictions, they will get hit head-on with a category 3 strength storm on Wednesday. It looks as if nearly the entire state will be feeling some effects from Milton. I think their (Tampa, St Petersburg and surrounding areas) infrastructure remained largely intact after Helene, but hundreds of thousands of pounds of debris are still to be cleared.

It's hard even to fathom the amount of damage that occurred in the Carolinas and surrounding areas. Thankfully for them, Milton looks to be moving west to east over Florida.

I thought this too. Most people don’t know about it. Whole areas have been destroyed in huge floods of a magnitude not seen before in the mountains. Twitter (X) is my source for a lot of stuff that isn’t covered by UK news channels/sites. The footage on there of the floods and aftermath in Ashville, Hendersonville areas and eastern Tennessee is incredible. I wish there was more coverage of these extreme weather events as they’re symptoms of climate change.

Yes, find it very odd there’s no coverage or nothing on the main channels.

not enough time in the news

All we get at the moment is war after war repoets. They're obsessed. I understand coverage of course, but there are other events going on that we should have coverage of too.

YANBU
i thought exactly the same. It’s the US - is this considered less exotic or similar? The devastation is horrific

It’s shocking that this has not been covered, although it is in the Guardian tbf.

I often wonder if the lack of coverage of disasters like this, and of widespread fires and excessive temperatures, explains why there’s so little understanding of the implications and reality of the climate change crisis.

There is the BBC world service -I tune into that sometimes to get away from the repetitive other stuff.
i found it depressing in the past - so many awful places so stopped listening regularly -but now it’s all depressing.

Most of us are more interested in what's going on in the ME. If I'm interested in specific regions then I look on the BBC regional pages. There's all sorts going on all over the place that isn't big news on a global scale.

That's the problem with the news channels in UK - they fixate on the biggest event (now middle east). Other events that are not as important don't get coverage. Tbh it's really annoying. We need to stay informed on all news. Instead we have 24/7 live coverage of Beirut and Tel Aviv.
Try watching european news channels if hou have Sky or similar.

is Al Jazeera still broadcasting?
i imagine is also Lebanon heavy
but agree, world service a wider range

Agreed.
And I wonder whether that's deliberate or not.

there is a limit on the amount of bad news we can process

Does it have to all be about what's more interesting?
Does it have to be one or the other?

What's going on in the Middle East is horrendous but it doesn't mean that other events are no longer important or worth covering.
Katrina was a huge moment in America. It got plenty of coverage at the time. This event is equally devastating. The loss of life alone may be greater than Katrina.

The same. I feel like I have to search for it to find out and most of the things I have found are things shared on Facebook!

Thing is whilst yes it a horrific thing. There's also a heck of a lot of positive stories coming through of people pulling together.
The sheer number of people volunteering to help. Buying food and water and generators to donate. The pack mules going into some of the most remote corners to get help in. Walmart sending 40+ trucks of donations to the area.

There's plenty to cover beyond the devastation.

I’m amazed as well. Keep seeing videos on tiktok and I keep crying. Nearly started a thread but was worried about the possibility of “what about the thousands and hundreds of people in Gaza type responses (which I am also upset about).

just can’t understand the lack of help in the USA …….i am seeing videos of nearby residents hiking up destroyed roads carrying supplies, searching for missing people, finding bodies.

genuinely if it wasn’t for tiktok I don’t think I’d know about it.

Yes me too. The news channels just seem to be focusing only on the middle East right now. My dd has been doing camp America all over the summer in North Carolina near Asheville ( one of the worst hit areas) until just a few weeks ago and the whole area is now destroyed, she doesn't know if local staff she worked with are safe or whether the beautiful camp in the mountains survived. It has been horrendous. I read somewhere it has been the worst since Hurricane katrina.
Kathmandu has also had horrendous floods with many dead and that seems to have been broadcast very little too .

If it weren't for TikTok, I'd have no clue it had even happened.