PUBLISHED OCT. 13, 2016
Social media and a hurricane
Although Hurricane Matthew didn’t directly visit the Tampa Bay area, the effects were certainly felt, especially on a small sailboat in a marina just off the bay. Social media provided both news, camaraderie and even a bit of humor. But some of it required being taken with a grain of salt.
The era in which television news anchors had to brave hurricane conditions while clinging desperately to a palm tree appears to be over. Social media is taking over, and individuals are now offering up-to-the-second reporting on Twitter and Facebook. Also, without commercial interruptions, video and information is instantly available from sources such as NASA and The Weather Channel with only a few clicks on a computer, tablet or smartphone keyboard.
Twenty years ago, I used a device known as Pocketmail while my wife and I lived and cruised aboard our sailboat. Obtaining weather information was the most important part of my day. Pocketmail was a plastic device, roughly the size of a large wallet, which unfolded and had a speaker that could be extended to fit the handset of what was then a very ubiquitous pay telephone. I would dial a toll-free number and press the device against the phone. A few minutes later, I could read my downloaded emails on a small, black and white LCD screen on the device.
The National Weather Service has long been on the forefront of technology and, after contacting them, I was given instructions on how to receive weather and hurricane information via email and my Pocketmail. There were no images, just text. At the time, it seemed amazing.
Pocketmail no longer exists. My smartphone will work nearly anywhere in the world and provides high-definition imagery that I could not possibly have imagined two decades ago.
And it also feeds a constant stream of information about nearly anything, but most recently about Hurricane Matthew. Through my phone, I read reports from people in the midst of the worst of it. I saw images of damage and video of flooding, long before they appeared on television news (in the media world of 2016, the phrase, “long before” often means five or 10 minutes). I read first-hand accounts of what real people were really seeing and experiencing.
Or so it seemed. The enormous problem with social media is curating the news. Not every report was an accurate report, and there are certainly those individuals seeking their 15 minutes of viral fame. As such, the news from real media sources is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago, even if they do appear to move too slowly for an impatient society in which five or 10 minutes of delay is too long.
A public group quickly formed on Facebook for people to talk about the storm.
Tweet from Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy): #Matthew is passing KSC w/sustained wind of 90 MPH w/gusts to 107. No reports of significant damage so far. Winds should calm some ~10:30am.
And while some people on social media were calling the storm over-hyped, which as of Monday had resulted in the deaths of 19 people in the U.S. and more than 900 in Haiti, real meteorologists (including, in some cases, Paul Dellegatto of Tampa’s Fox 13) were responding with words, photos and footage that revealed the contrary. Those tweeting and posting that the storm was over-hyped were potentially putting others in danger. The professionals were countering by providing the much-needed professional curation that social media inherently lacks.
When Orange County, which includes both Disney World and the city of Orlando, went on lockdown and imposed a curfew at the height of the storm, a discussion board dedicated to Disney World zoomed to life. Although official numbers are rarely released, the theme park is thought to be able to accommodate 100,000 guests (certainly significantly fewer than that in hotels), making it less theme park and more medium-sized city during an emergency situation. For only the fifth time since opening, the park closed on Thursday and remained closed on Friday last week. On the discussion board, resort guests were telling of being told to stay in their rooms and being offered boxed lunches rather than restaurant accommodations. But those reports varied by hotel.
The experiences of friends staying within the theme park bore that out. One was there from the Midwest for a conference. In her hotel, she waited an hour for a boxed meal and was then asked to remain in her room. Other friends, a couple who had evacuated their home on the beach off Melbourne, were served dinner and later brunch buffet style and had no such restrictions beyond those of everyone in the county: Anyone on the roads while the curfew was in effect would be subject to arrest.
During the storm, Facebook activated its Safety Check feature for those in effected areas.
In the end, despite complaints both real and imagined, it was clear that Disney handled what was nothing short of a logistical nightmare in a highly professional manner: No one went hungry and no one got hurt, despite that some may have had it better than others. But it all made for a compelling story unfolding in real time.
As Hurricane Matthew continued on, Facebook activated its “Safety Check” feature — something the world’s largest social network has used in the past for everything from major earthquakes to mass shootings. The feature allows anyone in an area of danger to make a simple click to let family and friends know that they are safe. From the feature, I could see that several friends had already confirmed that they indeed were safe. Certainly a positive feature resulting from the use of social media.
Matthew never directly visited the Tampa Bay area, but the impacts were certainly felt, especially while on a small sailboat just off the bay. Despite that early on, wifi service went out in the marina, I was able to spend the night, hyper-vigilant, watching real-time radar and seeing reports, primarily via Twitter, that were literally up to the second in nature — all through my iPad and iPhone. But except for those from NASA, the National Weather Service and other established news outlets, some tweets and posts had to be taken with a grain of salt.
Fortunately, that didn’t necessarily include a video of two sneaker-wearing dinosaurs playing on the beach near Stuart as the storm roared past. That one turned out to be true (two people dressed in dinosaur costumes, of course) and was good for a smile on a dark day; it was even better than seeing a news anchor hugging a palm tree. For all of its problems, social media is funny like that. Even during a hurricane.