Flooded

A little thing in the Australian on Friday caught my eye, and before you ask, no I won't provide a link. Two reasons. 1) I'm lazy, and 2) the Oz is strangely hard to search.

Page 5. An article's first sentence is "The Department of Immigration has been flooded with 85 applications from World Youth Day pilgrims seeking to remain in Australia - and that number is predicted to rise."

How's that flooded, exactly? Is 85 more than expected? Clearly the sub-editors at the Oz want us to feel like it's a lot. If all we have is the number - 85 - then you could just as easily write "Only 85 of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have applied to stay in Australia, relieved Immigration officials say."

If this keeps up, I'll have to go back to the Fairfax press.