A Community Responds to a Natural Disaster: The Nashville Flood's Story Tellers

During the epic May 2010 flood in Nashville, Tennessee, social media played a vital role in crisis communication. Mobile phone accessible web outlets, such as Facebook.com and Twitter.com, became the only source of information during the long hours that the city was without power and had no access to other sources of weather advisories or emergency service updates. Social networks are a fast way to communicate and distribute information on an ongoing basis. They facilitate broadcasting of updated and useful information, and provide additional tools to answer people's questions when other channels, such as hotlines or emergency contacts, are not available. Professionals and amateurs put their research and opinions of the events out in order to engage the audience in a bidirectional communication. During the aftermath, social media remained a powerful source of information for new advisories, finding people with similar needs and sharing resources. Access to timely updated information became an excellent tool to bring the community together and allow sharing personal experiences from their fellow Nashvillians. With over 1 million independent blogs, posts, pictures and videos, and millions of viewers, this response has certainly been one of the largest social media outpourings during a disaster of this magnitude. This research examines the role of social networks during and after a major disaster as a tool in crisis communication and supporting disaster relief efforts. It evaluates the potential benefits and shortcomings of social media as a tool for emergency and disaster preparedness, using the Nashville flood as a model.