During an emergency, turn to Twitter?
I received a press release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency Region VII saying that the agency is now using Twitter. Why not? Everyone is using some form of social site to post information. Region VII administers FEMA programs and coordinates disaster response in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, by the way.
According to the release: “The Web-based, social-media tool will allow FEMA to instantly communicate with emergency responders, citizens, and members of the media to gather and disseminate important disaster-related information.”
More from the release: “Regional staff will post on Twitter details about FEMA’s disaster-response, the progress of recovery efforts, and links to press releases or other documents that explain our mission and current efforts. When logged into a Twitter account, users can also make statements or ask questions. Some examples of how Region VII plans on using Twitter include:
Want to follow it? www.twitter.com/femaregion7.
I suppose there’s some value to this. If it’s easy to create the fed, why not, right? The more info that can be sent the better. I’m not sure who is going to turn to Twitter when a crisis occurs, but apparently Region VII thinks it’s a good idea.
