Disasters are confusing and chaotic.

It’s hard to know where to find reliable and timely information in the midst of them. The American Red Cross figures these tools might help us provide you with valuable information straight from our own fingertips. Starting with the tornadoes in Central Florida last February, we’ve been creating blogs for each major disaster. The main purpose of this project is to keep media and journalists abreast of quickly changing information, but anyone with an internet connection can access the updates. During each major disaster we will open a new blog from the American Red Cross Online Disaster Portal.

The portal serves to:

• Keep media informed of our service delivery
  Help clients find the services we provide
  Help donors know more about what we’re doing in real time
  Provide a comprehensive collection of our disaster communications

The latest blog was created for the recent flooding throughout the midwest. Like its predecessors, it is covering up-to-date statistics on the number and location of open shelters, number of residents, and number of meals and snacks served. You’ll also find downloadable press releases, media advisories, sound files, photos and video clips.  

While these sites use blogging software, they’re not blogs in the typical sense of the word because they are one-way communications from us to you. We’re simply pushing information from the field more quickly than we would be able to without this technology. 

Stay tuned for exciting developments in this arena as we figure out how best to use these tools for good. We’re experimenting with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Red Cross Chat.

Filed under: Disaster Response