What Harvey and Irma Taught Us About Using Social Media in Emergency Response

A Facebook group posts the Amazon "wish lists" of families in Western North Carolina who were affected by Hurricane Helene to help them meet their immediate needs and provide holiday gifts for children. Donors "adopt" families and purchase anywhere from one item to the entire list.

In an effort to address online violence children face in the digital age, initiatives across several countries, including Spain, Romania, and Ukraine, are getting creative using theatre, media literacy training on AI and algorithms, anonymous reporting hotlines and classroom phone bans, among other strategies to help youth cope. The various initiatives have proven successful. For example, the school-wide phone ban in one Spain region resulted in a 27.42% decrease in cyberharassment cases between 2023-2024.

In war zones, people have a difficult time finding clean water and safe areas to inhabit. Social media, smart phones, and technology applications are aiding in people’s survival. In Aleppo, Syria, the International Committee of the Red Cross posted a map on Facebook to show alternative sources of clean drinking water that reached approximately 140,000 people.

The Grand Canyon River Alert System is a first-of-its-kind system in the U.S. that uses satellite messaging technology to deliver flash flood warnings and emergency alerts to travelers in the remote wilderness areas. Users subscribe by texting from their satellite devices and receive real-time alerts about imminent flash flooding, hazardous conditions, and other emergencies within five minutes of detection. During its test phase, the system successfully issued 29 alerts, and has since made plans to expand.

A resident of Western North Carolina started a google form and spreadsheet to connect community members with volunteers offering the help they need to recover after Hurricane Helene.

Neighbors around the country are forming grassroots community groups to prepare for, and respond to, extreme weather and disasters. These groups organize aid and supplies, participate in reconstruction, and help others find shelter amidst the storms.

The BrandTell Nigeria Business Group is a WhatsApp group that provides daily interactive sessions on building online brand visibility to business owners with little to no online presence. Those subscribed to the group also have access to online tools for bookkeeping, graphic design and content creation to help grow their business.

The Tufunguke initiative works to raise awareness, educate and provide a community for those experiencing mental health issues. Tufunguke creates a safe space both online through social media platforms and in person through events for people to come together to discuss mental health and get connected with care resources Tufunguke reaches about 100,000 people a month through its many social media accounts.

A community-based, early-warning system for flooding in Durban, South Africa, gave community members an early enough evacuation order so that no lives were lost. The system uses information from Weather Service reports to know when and where to monitor real-time local conditions. When a community member or member of the disaster management unit sees the conditions are becoming dangerous, they use messaging apps to warn the community.

The mutual-aid group Occupy Sandy helped New York City residents affected by Superstorm Sandy. Using and expanding the network of people created by Occupy Wall Street, 60,000 volunteers distributed supplies, created a map of relief locations, and organized helping hands wherever necessary.