Using Social Media During an Emergency Situation

The Development of Social Media

10 years ago, Facebook and Twitter were not household names. Today, they hold a significant meaning in the world and how we network with other human beings. Social Media has morphed from a small community of members to a vast network of people all over the world, progressively changing the way we communicate with others.

At its core, the social networking elites were created to help people connect. Nowadays, its hard to find someone who doesn't have a Facebook profile or a Twitter account. That's a huge component to social media communications: practically everyone has one. Fortunately, emergency managers, emergency communicators and those alike have developed ways to reach you, yes YOU, through these social media giants - and it could save your life.

The Importance of Social Media During Emergency Situations

I was recently recalling the 2011 Texas Wildfire disaster, shifting through pictures and information, when I was reminded how important social media played in communicating to those effected by the tragic fires. My social media sites, 'Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Police Scanner' on Facebook and @DFWscanner on Twitter, worked together with several other folks, including Texas Storm Chasers, GaryTX, and all others using the hashtag '#txfire' for info, to help notify the victims/evacuees of the impending situation. We all provided very timely, accurate, and up-to-date information that was critical to the people that lived in the effected areas. Personally, this fire outbreak taught me the essential role social media plays in relation to emergency situations.

What to Do!

Natural disasters that effect the USA:

-severe weather outbreaks (Tornado Alley, the south)
-earthquakes
-snow/ice storms
-wildfires and/or major brush fires
-hurricane coasts
-other types of natural disasters

If you live in an area where one or more of these disasters has the potential to happen (which is all of the United States), you should realize the importance of social media as a means of communication if a disastrous event like one of these happens.

Say a raging 15,000 acre wildfire is tearing across parks of Oklahoma and Texas. If you live in the path of this fast moving fire, you need to be able to get accurate information on the size and distance of the fire as it moves towards your country home. The perfect way to reach you is through social media. It's free, quickly updated, and accessible by most everyone.

Real example: The Tri-County Fire (Waller, Montgomery, Grimes) that happened in September of 2011 was one of the fires we were monitoring on my page (DFW Police Scanner). In Bryan/College Station at the time, I responded to the fire 2 different times to gather fire information from the Command Post as well as pictures for my social networking sites. By this time, we had thousands relying on our updates. We had resources with the Texas Forest Service and local emergency operation offices publishing information on evacuation zones, sizes and locations of the fire, and other pertinent information through social media/incident web sites. We were then able to publish all of this information and aid the evacuation and notification efforts.

You won't realize how crucial social media is until you need it most!

Get active, sign up to join Facebook and Twitter, like and follow the social media incident alert pages in your area, keep your community informed by sharing the info you receive through social networking - all of these steps will aid in the safety of yourself and others when an emergency hits.

I would love to talk with you about social media and the emergency notification process. If you'd like to email me, you can do so here. I also invite you to LIKE and FOLLOW my Facebook page: Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Police Scanner and Twitter page: @DFWscanner. You can also visit my website here: www.DFWscanner.net

Thanks for reading,

JohnB0127