For good or bad social media is a major part of modern life. My intention for this post is to spark some interesting discussion and showcase some instances of social media directly affecting emergency response.
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In June 2013, Congresswoman Susan W. Brooks, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications, led a hearing titled “Emergency MGMT 2.0: How #SocialMedia & New Tech are Transforming Preparedness, Response, & Recovery.”
Full Subcommittee Hearing: Emergency MGMT 2.0. Recently FEMA has also released the Disaster Response for establishing a central repository for disaster related photos.
During Hurricane Sandy, Twitter hashtags were analyzed to track power outages and areas that were worst hit in the video below Fix news reporters tell us how they used social media information.
US department of Homeland security released a paper in June 2013 that detailed “Lessons Learned - Social Media and Hurricane Sandy: Virtual Social Media Working Group”
During typhoon disaster in the Philippines, Sadly 2013 was a year of multiple strong typhoons as well as an earthquake in the country, so the nation’s web users had a lot to worry over on social media.
The #RescuePH hashtag was put to good use on Twitter as a way to crowdsource and coordinate which areas need help the most after a disaster.
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Marc Healy [D4H] Crew
