Around 7pm on the Friday night of the cyclone event we had no power, no internet, no phone internet coverage, so no access to the Hazards NSW App and we were desperate for a cyclone emergency updates.
The night before at 1.30am we had a huge 30m eucalypt come crashing down missing our bedroom by 2m so we were understandably on edge with the wind gusts increasing beyond 100km/h.
I resorted to sitting in my car listening to ‘local’ ABC to try to hear what local emergency alerts were occurring. I was extremely disappointed with the Brisbane ABC and there was next to ZERO references to our region. At one stage whilst they covered all the extensive Brisbane and SE QLD news, I heard them say we will cover Lismore in the next hour.
Our wider region had more issues than just Lismore. We were unable to get updates and our ‘local’ ABC was missing in action and it wasn’t good enough for the locals desperate for information.
We were high and dry except for the strong wind gusts but others suffering similar outages and impacted by the threat of flooding like South Golden Beach and Billinudgel would have been desperate for updates.
Surely, we deserve our own coverage in those testing times. ABC you can do better.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
