Skip to main content

Tweeting to Save the Day

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


So Superstorm Sandy comes and pretty much knocks everybody on their butts – and then what? Where to go? Shelters? Food? Which streets are open, and which are flooded? Is somebody dropping off blankets or chain saws somewhere? When?

According to Julie Macie, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina working towards a masters in technology and communications, you can’t just say, “get online and find out.” In fact, she’s doing the work to figure out exactly what should happen next, and how: she’s put a survey online to find out what people have done with Red Cross social media during and after disasters: tornadoes? Hurricanes? Public safety emergencies? Floods, blizzards, earthquakes? Macie wants to hear about it.

She cites an amazing statistic: “Three out of four Americans expect help when they post something on Facebook or Twitter” after a disaster. That is, according to a 2012 Red Cross survey, in the aftermath of disaster, 76% of Americans expect help within three hours of posting a request on social media. And that’s without any formal program of social media response. Now of course at the moment the Red Cross keeps an eye on social media feeds during disaster response, but there’s no standard for how such a thing should work. The Red Cross, in fact, overtly tells you: call 911! They have a social media team, staffed by volunteers. But they’re no dummies, so they’re trying to figure out how to meet people where they are.


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Hence Macie’s work. She’s working with the Red Cross on her project, trying to create best practices for the Red Cross about using social media during disaster response. Again – her survey takes only a few minutes and will help the Red Cross – and other agencies – figure out how best to respond to disaster on social media. Whether it’s things like “digital hugs” (volunteers doing little more than responding and saying, “gracious, that’s awful, hang in there”), or doing things like providing information about food drops and water purity and safe transportation routes, Macie is trying to figure out how agencies can get the word -- and the food, and the blankets, and the responders -- out faster and more efficiently.

It’s not like the Red Cross has been sitting on its hands: it’s introduced specific apps for things like hurricane preparedness shelter locations, and first-aid tips. The hurricane app even has a one-touch “I’m okay” button, a flashlight, and a siren: it’s kind of a Swiss Army cellphone.

And macie’s hardly the first person to do research on the topic: one scientist, Sarah Vieweg, found that between a twelfth and a quarter of all post-disaster tweets from people involved contained actionable information: stuff that could actually get them help.

So anyhow, take a minute (seven minutes, Macie estimates) to take the survey and help the Red Cross improve things for everybody for the next superstorm.

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

More by Scott Huler