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I've noticed an almost complete lack of coverage of the flooding in Iowa and Nebraska - I have a lot of family there and the amount of damage has been astoundin

I've noticed an almost complete lack of coverage of the flooding in Iowa and Nebraska - I have a lot of family there and the amount of damage has been astounding[1]. Nebraska has more miles of rivers than any state in the US, and many of them are flooding or close to it. It's a complete disaster there. [1]https://weather.com/news/news/2019-03-17-flooding-before-and-after-images-midwest-nebraska https://weather.com/news/news/2019-03-17-flooding-before-and...

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
For the most part people on the coasts are who the news are catering to (that's where the millions of eyeballs that you can show ads to are) and they don't really care about the Midwest, at least not specifically. Also some dude literally on the other side of the world shot some other people in a highly provocative manner so that's in the news instead because it's easier to milk that for eyeball minutes. I'm sure this will earn me a bunch of "no, I totally care" down-votes but as you click the feel good button you should ask yourself, would you actually be interested in what's going on in Nebraska on a normal, not submerged in several feet of water, day?
- deleted 8y ago
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darkpuma 8y ago
People on the coast get flooded by violent weather systems such as hurricanes, while people inland tend to get flooded because they chose to live in a floodplain and there was a bit more snow melt this year than usual. Justly or not, the former tends to be seen as a "random natural disaster", and therefore newsworthy, while the later tends to be seen as "idiots reaping what they sowed", and therefore less newsworthy. Edit: To be clear, I personally find the bias to be unwarranted since storm surge zones are generally equivalent to floodplains; anybody living there should know about it and has made their choice. However, it should be noted that a hurricane becomes more newsworthy the further up the coast it strikes, particularly if it's north of Virginia. This increase in newsworthiness reflects the decreasing attitude of "they should have anticipated that. People in Florida being hit by a hurricane is more expected than people living in New Jersey or New York. That's why a hurricanes, which are generally newsworthy, become even more newsworthy the further from Florida it hits the coast.
- bilbo0s 8y ago
  People on the coasts live in floodplains too. Living in floodplains is just a fact of life. Has been for 10's of millennia. Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Persians, Egyptians, Chinese, and so on and so forth back to the beginning. They all built in floodplains. Let's stop jabbing a finger at people and give them a hand instead. If you don't want to lend a hand, that's fine too, just go about your day. No need to denigrate people.
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    > "People on the coasts live in floodplains too" Yes I understand that, but that's not how it's perceived. People do not have objective worldviews, and it is the worldviews of the general public that determine whether or not something is considered newsworthy. I'm not defending this status quo, I'm explaining it. Something else to consider: hurricanes are personified. They're given names, and therefore make convenient villains. This increases their newsworthiness. If particularly snowy winters or intense rainstorms were given names, that would increase the newsworthiness of inland floods. Another thing to consider: when an inland flood occurs due to a dam collapse, rather than because of unnamed weather systems, that becomes more newsworthy and memorable than most hurricanes. I'd say the Johnstown Flood is about as memorable, maybe moreso, than the Galveston Hurricane, despite killing fewer people. That's because the Johnstown Flood was due to a dam collapse. A dam with a name, a discrete object with human owners. That's why an inland flood in rural Pennsylvania is remembered nearly a century and a half later, while most inland floods hardly make the news at all. Consider also the Great Molasses Flood. By flood standards or even industrial disaster standards, the number of casualties were small. However everybody has heard of the Great Molasses Flood. Why? Because it happened in Boston? No, because it was molasses! That's very unusual, nobody would have anticipated that, and therefore it's newsworthy.
    - bilbo0s 8y ago
      Thanks for the clarification. Perception does become our reality. True enough.
  - 8y ago
holtalanm 8y ago
from nebraska. can confirm. entire towns have been evacuated due to flooding. only way to get around some of them currently is via airboat.
protomyth 8y ago
Its not on the coast or in Chicago or Denver, so it really will only get regional coverage. The book about fark.com "It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News" has a section illustrating this with a crane collapse in Manhattan and then one in St. Louis. A few years back with that winter storm hit South Dakota and killed a lot of cattle (the cattle were mostly in the summer fields and the weather actually went from freezing rain to blizzard), it wasn't really reported and people wondered what the heck was going on with steak prices. I sometimes wish there was a "trend news" website that reported supply to consumer news.
kevinconaway 8y ago
There was a front page story about it in the New York Times last week (in fact there is still a story on the home page below the fold about it [0]) but it got bumped for coverage of the attack in NZ [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/flood-facts.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/flood-facts.html?actio...
wffurr 8y ago
I didn't have to dig far in the Boston Globe to find an article about it. It's third in the Nation and World section.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

For the most part people on the coasts are who the news are catering to (that's where the millions of eyeballs that you can show ads to are) and they don't really care about the Midwest, at least not specifically. Also some dude literally on the other side of the world shot some other people in a highly provocative manner so that's in the news instead because it's easier to milk that for eyeball minutes. I'm sure this will earn me a bunch of "no, I totally care" down-votes but as you click the feel good button you should ask yourself, would you actually be interested in what's going on in Nebraska on a normal, not submerged in several feet of water, day?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

darkpuma 8y ago

People on the coast get flooded by violent weather systems such as hurricanes, while people inland tend to get flooded because they chose to live in a floodplain and there was a bit more snow melt this year than usual. Justly or not, the former tends to be seen as a "random natural disaster", and therefore newsworthy, while the later tends to be seen as "idiots reaping what they sowed", and therefore less newsworthy. Edit: To be clear, I personally find the bias to be unwarranted since storm surge zones are generally equivalent to floodplains; anybody living there should know about it and has made their choice. However, it should be noted that a hurricane becomes more newsworthy the further up the coast it strikes, particularly if it's north of Virginia. This increase in newsworthiness reflects the decreasing attitude of "they should have anticipated that. People in Florida being hit by a hurricane is more expected than people living in New Jersey or New York. That's why a hurricanes, which are generally newsworthy, become even more newsworthy the further from Florida it hits the coast.

bilbo0s 8y ago
People on the coasts live in floodplains too. Living in floodplains is just a fact of life. Has been for 10's of millennia. Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Persians, Egyptians, Chinese, and so on and so forth back to the beginning. They all built in floodplains. Let's stop jabbing a finger at people and give them a hand instead. If you don't want to lend a hand, that's fine too, just go about your day. No need to denigrate people.
- darkpuma 8y ago
  > "People on the coasts live in floodplains too" Yes I understand that, but that's not how it's perceived. People do not have objective worldviews, and it is the worldviews of the general public that determine whether or not something is considered newsworthy. I'm not defending this status quo, I'm explaining it. Something else to consider: hurricanes are personified. They're given names, and therefore make convenient villains. This increases their newsworthiness. If particularly snowy winters or intense rainstorms were given names, that would increase the newsworthiness of inland floods. Another thing to consider: when an inland flood occurs due to a dam collapse, rather than because of unnamed weather systems, that becomes more newsworthy and memorable than most hurricanes. I'd say the Johnstown Flood is about as memorable, maybe moreso, than the Galveston Hurricane, despite killing fewer people. That's because the Johnstown Flood was due to a dam collapse. A dam with a name, a discrete object with human owners. That's why an inland flood in rural Pennsylvania is remembered nearly a century and a half later, while most inland floods hardly make the news at all. Consider also the Great Molasses Flood. By flood standards or even industrial disaster standards, the number of casualties were small. However everybody has heard of the Great Molasses Flood. Why? Because it happened in Boston? No, because it was molasses! That's very unusual, nobody would have anticipated that, and therefore it's newsworthy.
  - bilbo0s 8y ago
    Thanks for the clarification. Perception does become our reality. True enough.
- 8y ago

holtalanm 8y ago

from nebraska. can confirm. entire towns have been evacuated due to flooding. only way to get around some of them currently is via airboat.

protomyth 8y ago

Its not on the coast or in Chicago or Denver, so it really will only get regional coverage. The book about fark.com "It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News" has a section illustrating this with a crane collapse in Manhattan and then one in St. Louis. A few years back with that winter storm hit South Dakota and killed a lot of cattle (the cattle were mostly in the summer fields and the weather actually went from freezing rain to blizzard), it wasn't really reported and people wondered what the heck was going on with steak prices. I sometimes wish there was a "trend news" website that reported supply to consumer news.

kevinconaway 8y ago

There was a front page story about it in the New York Times last week (in fact there is still a story on the home page below the fold about it [0]) but it got bumped for coverage of the attack in NZ [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/flood-facts.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/flood-facts.html?actio...

wffurr 8y ago

I didn't have to dig far in the Boston Globe to find an article about it. It's third in the Nation and World section.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]