Disaster Timeline:
October 2012: Sandy wreaked havoc across Northeast and killed more than 100 people.
Summer 2012: The Midwest (U.S.) was hit by widespread drought.
December 2011: Tropical storm Washi kills more than 1500 in the Philippines.
Summer 2011: Droughts plagued parts of Texas and Oklahoma and killed nearly 30,000 children in Africa.
March 2011: An 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan and the resulting tsunami claimed more than 15,000 lives.

Events like these can – and often do – reinforce the idea that we are all truly in this together. Increasingly, social media is playing a key role in helping to ease the heavy burden of these tragedies by connecting individuals and communities with each other and with critical resources.

Sadly, few of us are strangers to natural disasters, but until you see lists like the one above it’s easy to push the possible devastation and turmoil we all face to the recesses of our minds. Regardless of your view of the causes or necessary interventions for these events, one positive outcome of natural and man-made disasters is that these provide opportunities for our humanity to really shine.

Effective examples of how social media has been leveraged in times of natural disaster:

• Social media, in its simplest form, can notify the masses in real-time about situations that are happening or are about to happen.
  • In August 2011, several New Yorkers learned of an earthquake on Twitter prior to feeling it. From the D.C. area, tweets began popping up in droves almost 30 seconds before anyone felt the tremors in New York City, and ahead of any media reports about it. Twitter said that more than 40,000 earthquake-related tweets were sent within a minute of the earthquake’s manifestation.
  • During the Haitian Earthquake in 2010, “social media users were used as a base for volunteers by Ushahidi, a piece of software that allows digital volunteers to create maps for first responders in a disaster zone. Skype was also used to coordinate relief efforts. The Marine Corps, the Coast Guard and The World Food Program have also used Ushadidi in several disaster response efforts.” (Trends in Social Media: Use in Natural Disasters, Carnegie Mellon University).
  • Social media can be a great tool for publishing reminders, helpful tips, resource information and updates.
    • When Hurricane Sandy approached the U.S. East Coast in October 2012, New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital used their Facebook page to share related information, continually updating it with links and new details as they developed.

• Social media can be used to identify trouble spots and to react quickly during emergencies.
  • “To better address and manage crisis events via social media, the American Red Cross looked to Dell to understand how to best scale their efforts, establish processes and training and build their own listening command center.”
  • In March 2012, tornadoes struck Kentucky and Indiana. Wendy Harman, Director of Social Strategy at the American Red Cross said, “Our colleague Joe Hansen who works on our disaster public affairs team noticed lots of Tweets describing the collapse of a school in Henryville (Indiana), so we made a quick decision to send our public affairs volunteers to that location. This decision was made much more quickly than this type of decision has ever been made before.”
• Social media can be used to foster communication among various healthcare, aid, government agencies and individuals.
  • Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ, a prolific Twitter user, consistently tweeted helpful information for the Newark community following Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012.

If you are new to social media and/or wonder who its users are, take a look at Jane Sarasohn-Kahn’s HIMSS Blog, “Chronic Disease and Social Networks.” Another great resource documenting how powerful social media can be and how far its reach continues to grow is Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics site.

I encourage you to find a social media platform, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ or one of the emerging social media networks. Use it enough to know how to search for information, post comments, ask questions and get help or critical information to your community. Who knows – it might be the most important thing you do online.

What are some uses for social media related to natural disasters that you find powerful and interesting? We’d love to hear from you.

This article was originally published on the HIMSS blog.

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