So it bucketed down Golf balls here in Melbourne Saturday…well, it did where I lived, some media are reporting hail as big as lemons.
One of the few times I’ve ever been scared in weather (other times nearly exclusively on aircraft.) I actually pulled Declan away from the windows because I was scared that the hail would shatter them. The noise is something I’ll never forget: we have a colourbond roof, OMG it was loud.
I didn’t keep a full tally of how long it took for the media to cover it, but my general observations: slow.
The Age was first with the storm warning. News.com.au didn’t have it, but it did appear in the Hun just before storm. ABC mustn’t work Saturdays.
Afterwards, The Age was first up with a picture, but slow in updating the storm warning.
The Hun beat The Age, but it was a good 30 mins after the fact.
The rest followed. ABC was beyond slow, hours later.
Notably while the newspapers were still only just reporting it, Seven News that night (and it’s the only time I watch the news…natural disasters) dedicated the first full half to the disaster.
It was too local for my coverage (earthquakes and fires I’ll play, but hail not so much) but given what was coming out of Twitter in the minutes following, could have beaten them all….and anyone else could have as well. I was sharing video and pics via Twitter from others 15 minutes before the MSM hit the story hard.
It would appear though that the MSM here in Australia continue to get caught short on weekends.
