When disaster strikes, locals head to the Information Superhighway to spread the word, a trend that has emergency responders following close at their heels.
“It’s immediate, you can’t beat it,” said city emergency management officer Joanne Sheardown.
Traditional means of getting the message out quickly on events like fires, floods, storms and riots have been eclipsed, city officials say. The explosion of social networking inspired the recent creation of three online accounts for the Edmonton Office of Emergency Preparedness, which is now on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
When a violent August windstorm felled trees, damaged buildings and grounded power lines, Edmonton’s Twitter hashtag (#yeg) became one of the social networking site’s top 10 trending topics.
The traffic caught the attention of Emergency Preparedness staff, who decided to jump into future conversations, rather than just watch chatter and photos of destruction roll in.
“If Edmontonians are looking for information on Twitter about incidents, they should be able to get accurate information from the city,” Sheardown said.
“We have to make it easy. That’s what’s so great about social networking.”
The new Facebook group will be updated constantly, with tips, links and up-to-the-minute info when and if disaster strikes.
Updates will be tapped in from the department’s command centre, a hub where police, utilities, social services and essential groups converge when emergencies happen.
“We wanted it to be more interactive — more of a conversation,” she said, adding the Facebook group is a launch pad for discussions.
