Learn how the 8(a) STARS II GWAC can help you with your IT needs. Hurricane Harvey was not the first time social media played an integral role in emergency communications channels, but it was the most recent and perhaps the most common example. For anyone who has been isolated, this is the story. This small tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico suddenly exploded into a Category 4 hurricane, hitting the Texas coast around 10 p.m. Friday night, devastating the beach community of Rockport.
Most hurricanes then move inland
Often weakening to a tropical storm and then a depression within hours. But Harvey was not that. Harvey was never a storm. As a hurricane, Harvey was fierce. As a sustained flooding event, Harvey was unprecedented. Not a 100-year, 1500-year, or even 1,000-year flood (depending on which expert you talk to). This is the kind of storm that has never had the perfect combination of conditions to bring unprecedented devastation to Texas. Nearly 72 hours after making landfall, Harvey is still a tropical storm, meandering along the Central Texas coast, dumping rain everywhere and nowhere.
Those of us working in local government
North Texas have been monitoring the situation and dispatching resources as requested to assist in search and rescue efforts. Personally, when all overseas chinese in usa data this happened, my wife and I were taking our son back to college for the weekend in Shreveport, Louisiana. On Sunday morning, we were in the hotel dining room next to a table of U.S. Coast Guard pilots from around the country, who were rushing to eat breakfast while assessing the weather and the best routes along the Texas coast.
It was humbling to see the faces of these public officials,
These good people rushing to fly into a finally, about moving from tropical storm. Government communicators take crisis communications very seriously. Most of us conduct drills regularly while adhering to federal training models. However, to make the most of that training means st tg data aying agile enough to adapt to the myriad variables that any emergency situation may throw at you. Hurricanes are good at dealing with variables.
In calm times, many people might
Consider the anonymity of social media to be the scourge of modern society. However, in an emergency, when normal lines of communication are down, social media can be a lifeline. Facebook has become quite adept at providing users with the opportunity to show friends that they are “safe” in a disaster zone. There are also buttons for “want to help” or “need help.” One storm chaser stumbled upon a lost dog and posted the video on YouTube. CNN picked up the story, and the dog was returned to its owner, who was a law enforcement officer.
