Local Emergency Information A Tweet Away

In the wake of this week’s earthquake and with Hurricane Irene barreling toward the Maryland coastline, state and county emergency management offices are on high alert to get important information out to the public.

Armed with social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, government officials across the state are reaching out to people like never before while also sticking to traditional media outlets to get their messages out.

“One of the bedrock functions of Emergency Management is being able to communicate with the public,” said Mark Hubbard, director of the Baltimore County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “There are so many options available— We’ve got to push out messages through as many different channels as possible so that there is something for everyone.”

Hubbard said that the agency’s Internet posts and its Twitter feed, which has 1,000 followers, are meant to reach a broad audience.

However, information is also simultaneously being broadcast through traditional media outlets like cable TV.

“The media has done a phenomenal job with getting information out quickly,” Hubbard said. “That helps to reduce the burden on the system in terms of people calling 911 to call and ask, ‘Hey, what was that?’”

In addition to Baltimore County, similar social networking activities are being utilized by the Howard County Executive’s Office; other Maryland counties have also posted emergency preparedness information along with headlines about the quake and the storm on their county websites.

Edward McDonough, spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, says that each county has its own formula for getting out information to the public.

Meanwhile, MEMA has its own Facebook page along with a news feed on its website and a Twitter account with nearly 2,000 followers.

One of most recent agency Tweets announced that Gov. Martin O’Malley declared the hurricane conditions a state of emergency.

“We’re certainly trying to integrate more of the newer technology but we also want to recognize our vulnerable populations,” McDonough said. “We are trying to reach the broadest range as possible with the most methods as possible.”

He added that if there is one thing that the agency learned from the earthquake—it’s not to rely on cell phone use.

“We had a devil of a time to trying to contact people because of the cell phone blockage,” McDonough said. He urges people to limit calls to emergencies only in such a situation.

“Call a relative on the landline…The cell phone system in this country is not robust enough to handle that kind of traffic…We urge people to shorten up their conversations until the disaster is past enough for the cell phone use to keep up with call levels.”

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman echoed those sentiments.

“The earthquake did reinforce the need to be prepared for a world without cell phones,” Ulman said. “What we learned is that you need to be constantly pumping out information, especially when people are cooped up in their homes and they can’t communicate via certain mechanisms.”

At the national level, FEMA has been posting Internet video updates on Hurricane Irene while the National Weather Service has put together weather podcasts. 

As for what residents are tuning into for their emergency information, it seems to run the gamut from the Internet to word of mouth.  

“After the earthquake I immediately looked at my phone and pulled up the web browser and looked at the local news,” said Emily Mawhinney, an Ellicott City resident. “I also looked on Facebook, which almost had more information faster than the news could report it.”

Stephanie McGowan, 19, of Marriotsville, also went on Facebook in the earthquake’s immediate aftermath. 

“I went on Facebook right away and then I went on AOL.com right away, and I found a Wikipedia link about it already.”

However those like Columbia resident Mark stuck to more traditional routes.

“I turn on the TV,” Harris said. When asked if he would go to his county’s website for emergency updates, he added, “Not for that kind of information. It doesn’t occur to me.”  

Others like Cindy McGowan found out about the earthquake with the help of a text message from UMBC, where she works.

For Marko Bulmer, a UMBC associate professor and expert on natural disaster and emergency management specialist, Tuesday’s earthquake was a lesson for the East Coast in how prepared it is for natural disasters.

Bulmer, who has been in earthquakes much bigger than Tuesday’s mid-Atlantic event, said he felt that UMBC responded appropriately to the incident.

Many of the college staff was assembled for a retreat and college President Freeman A. Hrabowski was speaking when the earth started to shake. It didn’t take long for university staff to clear the building and for the campus emergency response plan to go into effect. Students and staff received an emergency alert text message to leave buildings on campus.

Since there were no reported injuries and minimal damage, the conversation shifted to what could have been done differently on a college campus if the event had been more serious.

“An emergency plan is worth finding again in the desk drawer and is worth having a look at again,” he said.

Bulmer, who has traveled across the world studying earthquakes and how communities respond to their aftermath, said there are a few things to keep in mind when considering an emergency response plan for a company, organization or a family.

First, it is important for people who are decision makers in an organization that needs to take action to be able to communicate with one another. Second, people need to know where safe areas are and how to get to them. In a college setting, it’s important for students receive simple and basic instructions on where to go.

For a family, a place should be agreed upon for everyone to meet if there is an emergency. But what may be the most important lesson in an increasingly technologically connected world is how information is distributed to people and when.When a disaster or event hits, many outside groups may flood a college or a company with questions so much that those decision makers can’t communicate with one another.

While it may be hard to admit, Bulmer cautions that some people don’t need information on a friend or a family right away

“You should give a little bit of thought as to how immediately you need that information,” he said.

For a family, choosing a person to try to get in touch with every one or to communicate to friends and relatives that everyone is safe may be a way to avoid missed connections. For colleges or other organizations, it’s important to only distribute relevant information once they know it to be fact. There may in fact be a delay, Bulmer said, but it’s more important to distribute the right information, he said.

Patch Catonsville local editor Penny Riordan contributed to this report.