During the unprecedented rainfalls of February in North Queensland, locals faced anxiety over potential flooding, particularly Andrew Brown, a cybersecurity lecturer and amateur forecaster. He runs 'Wally's Weather,' a popular Facebook page that gained over 107,000 followers and 24 million views a month. As record floods forced evacuations, Brown provided continuous updates, even waking at night to inform his audience. His actions reflect a growing trend of the public relying on social media for weather and news updates, competing with traditional media outlets.
"When there's a big weather event, you try and give people as much notice as possible."
"People want to know what's going on, because even if they lose power, they've probably still got an internet connection. These systems are notorious for happening at night time when you can't see what's going on, so you do feel like their eyes and ears."
Collection
[
|
...
]