News Corp pledges $1m to flood relief, teams up with St Vincent de Paul

News Corp Australia has committed $1 million to aid the recovery of communities devastated by the floods and to help people rebuild their lives.

News Corp Australia has committed $1 million to aid the recovery of communities devastated by the floods and to help people rebuild their lives.

Journalists from News Corp, publisher of The Daily Telegraph, have been on the front line covering the floods as rain and storms have lashed through Queensland and into NSW, and the company is asking those reporters to help identify the areas most in need of help as the recovery starts.

Northern Star journalist Tessa Flemming …

… and her ‘office’ at Lennox Head Cultural Centre.

Reporters such as Tessa Flemming, from The Northern Star, who kept filing from a Ballina evacuation centre as flood waters lapped at her own front door.

“People were coming in with their dogs, birds in cages. It was the best place to be for the story, but you don’t really want to be part of it yourself,” she said.

Her colleague Catherine Piltz was evacuated from her home in Lismore as the waters inside reached waist height.

“The scariest thing for me was thinking that there are still people that are old and trapped, and how frightening it must be for them,” she said.

Northern Star journalist Cath Piltz had to be evacuated from her South Lismore home and has returned for the clean-up. Picture: Toby Zerna

News Corp is working with St Vincent de Paul to support The Vinnies Flood Appeal, and gathering information from its staff on the ground to ensure the money gets where it’s needed most.

News Corp’s Community Ambassador Penny Fowler said: “Our support comes through direct contact between our people and the communities they live in and cover.”

Reporters and photographers worked tirelessly to keep their communities informed.

As the Mary River 250km north of Brisbane broke its banks, Fraser Coast Chronicle reporter Carlie Walker, 37, was cut off from Maryborough and stranded on the family farm with her parents. But she did not stop working.

“I have been glued to the laptop providing updates to the community while the photographer runs around town,” Walker said. “I feel that we are someone people can turn to when there is so much happening.”

Northern NSW editor Stuart Cumming says a lot of people hit hard by the floods don’t have any insurance cover. Picture: Toby Zerna

Over the border in NSW, Lismore was hit by the region’s worst flood on record on Monday, with four people so far confirmed dead.

Stuart Cumming, 38, editor of the northern NSW titles, had a 30-second drive from his house on high ground to start covering the floods.

“I watched a guy in a tinny rowing along his street, pulling his neighbours out one after the other,” he said.

“People have their belongings outside their homes as they try to clean up. It is a stinking mess and I have spoken to quite a few people who don’t have any ­insurance cover.”

Executive chairman Michael Miller says News Corp …

… is committed to helping devastated communities to rebuild.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said: “Many of the impacted communities lend us their names on our mastheads, and in return we are committed to helping them rebuild.

“Many of our own colleagues live in these communities. To our teams living in those communities, I’d like to say thank you. I am humbled by your incredible work performed under the most trying circumstances. You are brave and you are absolutely fearless. Well done.”

A print and digital campaign to support the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Vinnies Flood Appeal will begin in News Corp papers in NSW and Queensland this weekend.