Social media saving lives: user generated flood relief

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Living in Brisbane we are blessed with many things, climate usually being high on that list, but as the world saw this last week that isn’t always the case. From the tragedy that unfolded one has to look at the positives that came out of it to find order in things. I amongst many others discovered that social media has a bigger place in the developed world than simply streamlining communications, being a marketing channel and providing a soapbox for the people we admire.

The Queensland Police Service (facebook.com/QueenslandPolice and @QPSmedia) this last week may have set a precedent on how the connected world can now coordinate emergency services and a subsequent response. From the onset when meteorologists informed the public what was in store for the greater Brisbane area, Facebook and Twitter were alive with mention of both #thebigwet and #qldfloods.

Before long I had seen multiple mentions of @QPSmedia being retweeted advising that they were debunking myths being thrown around (the dam failing and which areas were indeed being affected), accurately advising on rapidly changing traffic conditions (which led to us being able to get a family member out of an area that became affected just in the nick of time) as well as advising on how best to prepare for the upcoming disaster (advising on evacuation centre locations, where to get sandbags and how best to stock up for potential shortages on basic supplies).

At the peak their followers were sitting around 165,000 for Facebook and 11,000 for Twitter, in the first day the numbers had risen dramatically once it became apparent that these were the go-to spots for accurate reporting. With the help of the public, vital communiqués were shared and retweeted, while the dialogue from the ground flourished through the commentary on each new piece of information made available. People were submitting video in real time utilizing feeds like live stream and YouTube as well as Flickr and Twitpic for photos. By the time the flood waters receded and I made it to one of the affected areas to help clean up, thousands of volunteers had descended upon the ravaged suburbs and one of the things most people I talked to shared in common?

They used social media groups to register for volunteering duties and listened to people’s posts online to inform their choice of areas to devote efforts towards.

While this method of handling emergencies & events is far from being able to replace traditional lines of reporting, I believe it has proven to be viable and essential from this day forward.

Stats compiled by researchers at Queensland University of Technology provide some insight into how #qldflood(s) was trending and travelling throughout the event. Hopefully these can be used to help other response teams around the world to validate requests for extending team’s capabilities to include the management of social based dialogue in times of crisis.

How long until all emergency services will have social media managers in place and based on this experience, what ways do you think they can improve upon those established in Brisbane?