Australia Is Burning & Tesla Owners Are Trying To Help

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Australia is burning and thousands are facing burning fires that ravage their communities and leave behind apocalyptic scenes. A friend told me that that power, communications, phones, and internet would be lost soon and I immediately thought of Starlink. So, I tweeted Elon Musk at around 1:00am. I wasn’t expecting his fast reply because he gets probably millions of tweets every hour, but he did have a short response. (Of course, my autocorrect changed power to poet and I am honestly not sure what that was about.)

The potential for Starlink when it comes to restoring communications in areas such as Australia devastated by natural disasters is huge. However, Elon said in the tweet it wasn’t ready yet. However, I believe that if it was, Elon would have been the first person to help when communications were lost.

To be honest, the fact that he cared enough to write to me (of all people) with an answer to this question shows that he cares. Elon Musk also knows that whenever he replies about some specific topic, people will talk about it. This opened a dialogue for those in Australia to reach out for help — especially a group of Tesla owners in Australia who live near and far from the fire.

You may remember “Tesla in the Gong” from their work with Special Olympics Australia. Well, they now have a #FrunksUp4Fires initiative that was started by Australia Tesla Owners and is raising funds for those affected by the fires.

When I asked Tesla in the Gong if he was safe, he replied that he was but he couldn’t say the same for those in Victoria and Bateman’s Bay. He hopes SpaceX can somehow help, maybe with rapid water delivery. A lot of people expect things like this from Elon Musk because Elon is the type of person who not only has the means to help, but often does when asked, even if it harms him in the long run. This shows the type of heart that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has for humanity in general.

It’s probably going to get worse for Australia before it gets better. It’s summertime there and this means that there will be no relief from Mother Nature’s burning heat. My friend, David, who told me initially about that power and communications were going to be lost, was saying also that the temperatures were reaching record highs. I live in Louisiana and we get 101 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit here from August through September, but that pales compared to the insane highs hitting Australia.

For those who are not even in Australia and feel helpless, don’t. You can donate to help, or even share their GoFundMe link if you are short on cash. Your voice helps. Remember, these are families who are losing everything to these fires. Some will even lose their lives if they don’t or can’t evacuate. If you wish to donate, you can do so here.


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Johnna Crider

Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok

Johnna Crider has 1996 posts and counting. See all posts by Johnna Crider