Additional resources and ideas about the use of blogs during disasters:

Rex Hammock puts it very concisely in this post, “Hyper-Local Blogging:

In times of local crisis, the importance of having an active blogging community becomes very apparent. There are so many people outside an area who are desperately seeking information — any information — from the ground, so even if power and web-access is out in a city, the information being shared is much needed. (One of the reasons I blog hurricanes is that all of my family (including inlaws) live within one-mile of the Florida or Alabama gulf coasts.) In addition to the standard “meet-ups” that are popular among bloggers here in Nashville and other cities, I suggest that some emergency preparation might be a good thing for bloggers to discuss before the need arises. I’d be happy to point to any examples or list of emergency-blog planning suggestions that exist. Feel free to e-mail me some, or add to the comments below. And I’d be happy to assist in helping Nashville bloggers organize for such an effort.

Josh Hallett makes the case that public information officers should familiarize themselves with local bloggers and make use of them during emergencies. (Hallett was, I think, thinking about government PIO’s – but since so much of the private sector can be involved in crises, private organizations big enough to have a public information function, in my view, can take similar advantage of the blogosphere). From PIOs – Add Bloggers to your Media Distribution List for Disasters & Emergencies

My wife was the public information officer (PIO) for our local county for a number of years. During hurricanes or other emergency situations (remember Y2K) she would spend countless hours at the emergency operations center doing media updates.Like Rex, I feel it’s important for PIOs to be connected with their local blogging community. When a PIO sends out an update to the media they should include local bloggers. The best case scenario would be for the county/local agency to have a blog/rss feed of such content. Continue reading →