As anyone who’s been in New South Wales, Australia could tell you, there’s been a LOT of rain over the last few weeks. So much so, that many areas of New South Wales have been severely flooded and thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate.
Some residents were even left without a way to contact loved ones or help, as phone and internet lines were impacted by severe flooding that occurred in Northern Rivers. Australian surfing legend and three-time world champion Mick Fanning – who also selflessly got out on his jet ski to help people travel from their flooded houses to safety – asked Elon Musk to help out on this front via Twitter.
Musk recently helped Ukrainians by supplying the war-stricken country with Starlink (a satellite internet service by his company SpaceX) and it looks like the billionaire has come through once again…. Sort of.
While Musk is yet to personally respond to Fanning’s plea, NetVault – a telecommunications provider that partnered with Starlink just last year – has donated 10 Starlink kits, that arrived in Byron Bay this morning, to assist with flood recovery. The kits have the latest ‘roaming tech’ enabled, so they are portable and will be able to be easily moved to other flood-damaged areas.
NetVault also confirmed on Twitter that they are currently in talks with Musk’s company, SpaceX, and are trying to get more Starlink kits to people currently affected by the floods in New South Wales.
Hopefully, SpaceX come through, as so far seven people have sadly lost their lives due to the NSW flooding and locals in the flooded areas believe that the ‘assistance’ from the Australian government has been limited and slow.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is flying to devastated areas in the Northern Rivers region today and is expected to declare the floods a ‘national emergency’ and detail extra funding for those impacted by all the flood damage.
But as The Guardian has reported, many are wondering why it’s taken so long for the PM to act… Even Musk, whose plate is full with renewable energy projects and getting humans to Mars, appears likely to beat Morrison to helping flood victims.
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