In a crisis, social media is ideal for spreading information fast — and helping disaster relief organizations get up-to-the-minute information about the situation on the ground.
This week's wildfires in Colorado are no exception. Grassroots campaigns, alongside major relief organizations, have analyzed social media data to help people in the fires' way.
Waldo Canyon Fire Tracker
Two Colorado Springs, Colo. residents, Scott Seibold and Robbie Trencheny, crafted a Twitter application which aggregates tweets that use the hashtag #WaldoCanyonFire, #WaldoFire, #waldocanyon and Colorado Springs. The tool also separates out official tweets from the city and pictures.
You can in theory do the same thing by watching Twitter trends or making lists of official accounts. But Seibold and Trencheny say their target audience are not Twitter users.
"We're trying to target people who don't have a presence on Twitter," Trencheny told Mashable. "This is a really quick way to get the story out."
For example, this picture of a displaced dog has been retweeted several times, and will reach far more eyeballs in the city than there are Twitter users.
dog displaced by #waldocanyonfire hopefully someone finds the owner! spread the pic maybe we can help twitter.com/yungjoshw/stat…
— yung josh (@yungjoshw) June 29, 2012
"There was a lot of panic as the roads closed, so we wanted to let people know as soon as possible what was going on in a fairly productive manor," Seibold says. "This is so intuitive that you don't have to understand Twitter."
Seibold and Trencheny are residents of the east side of Colorado Springs, and have opened their home up to residents of the city's west side. So far 30,000 people have been evacuated and 400 homes have been destroyed.
The duo are hoping to expand the tool to monitor the other fires in Colorado. They're also considering adding a geo-fence, so only tweets posted in the area will appear in the stream.
Red Cross' Emergency Response Center
The American Red Cross launched a social media response system in March — officially called the Digital Operations Center and casually called the Digidoc — which monitors real-time data from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.
The Colorado wildfires and Hurricane Debbie earlier this week were the two largest disasters to occur since its launch.
"We've seen a lot of people being afraid and scared this week," Gloria Huang, social engagement team member at the Red Cross, told Mashable. "We're able to reach out to them and give them digital hugs and provide mental safety."
In addition to spreading words of encouragement, the digital engagement team has been offering locals something more practical: the locations of their nearest shelters.
How else could social media help in a crisis? Let us know in the comments.
Photos From the Colorado Wildfires
"News channel pic of our mountains burning," from Instagram user @lindseyq.
"If these fires don't calm down, I might be coming home early. Praying 4 Colorado Springs & all those affected," writes Instagram user and Olympic athlete-in-training @wrestlingwfaith.
"A view of the Airforce Academy Chapel. ?#WaldoCanyonFire?," writes @Allismith4.
Flames seemingly about to engulf houses, from Instagram user @toniway.
"Working down the hill...#waldocanyonfire," says Instagram user @thj5231.
"This is unreal. So depressing :( rain please come," writes Instagram user @eleanorh.
(Update: This shot was originally taken by Denver Post photographer Helen H. Richardson. See more of her work here.)
"Ash that just fell from the sky.. Cant help but wonder whos text book this was," writes Instagram user @maryalisonforbesmaurer.
""From a girl in my nursing program. #nofilter #coloradosprings #waldocanyonfire #devastating"," writes Instagram user @brittycren.
"View from @csgazette. #waldocanyonfire lighting up the horizon," writes Instagram user and Colorado Spring Gazette Intern @andrewtgibson.
"When we closed up the store around 7:30," writes Instagram user @mividalocayo.
Image courtesy of Twitter, @wrestlingwfaith
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