When Hurricanes Strike, Social Media Can Save Lives

·  Not all agencies are taking into consideration social media information to make real time decisions

·  No consistent policies or guidelines for managing multiple government social media channels

·  Technical issues (access, power)

Opportunities

·  More government agencies recognize social media as communication vehicle

·  General public is more familiar with many social media platforms

·  Some agencies are tailoring information beyond Facebook that allows information to be targeted to specific neighborhoods. These include Twitter, Nextdoor, Instagram, YouTube, Periscope and Flickr.

·  Sometimes, social media can be a critical tool. In one community, the 9-1-1 system went offline because of the storm. The local government was able to use social media to get critical information to its community.

One lesson learned — the public seeks out information about hurricanes on social media much more often before and during the storm than afterwards, so timing of messages is important as many lose power and are unable to access social media. Therefore, emergency managers are posting recovery information before the storm landfall. Additionally, knowing which social media account the public uses is vital. Nearly one-third of counties struggled with managing multiple social media accounts. For example, the City of Orlando has more than 50 social media accounts. Some counties were able to shut down and redirect the public to one Twitter or Facebook account for consistent disaster information.

There are certainly challenges such as correcting bad information and combating rumors, but social media can also provide rich information that properly shared can help emergency managers and their teams better respond to emergencies such as hurricanes, the researcher said.

Knox joined UCF in 2011. She is an Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Master’s in Emergency and Crisis Management Program in UCF’s School of Public Administration. She has a Ph.D. in public administration and policy and a master’s of public administration (MPA) (environmental policy and management concentration, emergency management certificate) from Florida State University. She is a member of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research

She has nearly $5 million in funded research, and she has published more than 25 articles and eight book chapters in her areas of research which include: environmental vulnerability and disaster response, environmental policy and planning in coastal zones, cultural competency, and Habermas’ critical theory. Her co-edited book, Cultural Competency for Emergency and Crisis Management: Concepts, Theories and Case Studies, won the 2021 Book of the Year from the American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Democracy and Social Justice. She has also prepared multiple white papers and reports for municipalities looking to improve their emergency and resiliency planning in Florida and Louisiana.