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Twitter Can Predict Hurricane Damage As Well As Emergency Agencies (sciencemag.org)

Posted by msmash on from the social-media-to-rescue dept.

sciencehabit quotes an article from ScienceMag.com: In October 2012, meteorologists noticed a massive low-pressure system forming over the waters south of Cuba. In just 5 days, it spun into one of the largest hurricanes on record, cutting a path up the eastern U.S. coast and devastating communities with flooding and 140-kilometer-per-hour winds. Superstorm Sandy posed a massive problem for government clean-up crews. Where should they send their limited emergency supplies and services? A new study suggests a way to get that answer fast: Just listen to Twitter. Scientists have found that data gathered from the social media platform is as accurate and powerful as that collected by FEMA.

6 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Oblig xkcd by NotInHere · · Score: 2

    https://xkcd.com/723/

  2. this will create a twitter access bias by sittingnut · · Score: 2

    "Where should they send their limited emergency supplies and services?... Just listen to Twitter"
    but if during emergency, twitter is inaccessible to certain locations and accessible to others, such a selection of response based on twitter will skew the response to those who have access.
    furthermore if certain community/neighborhood have more social media usage and another less, it will also skew the response.

    1. Re:this will create a twitter access bias by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      if during emergency, twitter is inaccessible to certain locations and accessible to others ...

      In an emergency, one of the top priorities should be to get communications working. Drones with cell repeaters should be sent in as soon as the storm passes, and the phone companies should be able to let FEMA know which cell towers are not functioning. Cell towers are rugged, and they have backup batteries, so unless there was an EMP, most should be functioning.

    2. Re:this will create a twitter access bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is what Ham radio operators and R.A.C.E.S. exists for. Ham radio operators were the first to re-establish ground communications during hurricane Sandy and Katrina. Ham radio operators are so effective R.A.C.E.S. is actually folded under a leg of FEMA.

      We test our gear on a yearly basis during Field Day. We try and make as many contacts across the US as possible with as little power as possible using various communication methods over long wave radio (20M, 40M, 80M, 160M) .Be it generator, battery, solar, wind, etc. Long wave radio can also go thousands of miles without repeaters which is why it's so effective.

      Restoring the cellular grid is not a priority as it's not used by Emergency Services for communication. The cellular grid is very short range radio (Line of Sight) and is not very efficient at being used for emergency communications due to it's reliance on backhaul connections, POPs, etc all being operational.

  3. Come on by nospam007 · · Score: 2

    Didn't we read the same thing a dozen times already during the years?

    Twitter, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Altavista, Hotbot, CompuServe, ... can predict Hurricanes, the flu, tsunamis, bad weather ...

  4. Re:Predict? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

    I guess predict doesn't mean what I thought it meant.

    I predict we'll have more stupid headlines in the recent past.