It’s become the norm to see a flurry of social media activity during major disasters. We have one on our hands right now in Southern California, and it is no exception.  

First, I want to say that I hope everyone affected or potentially affected by these fires stays safe.

What the Red Cross is doing, social media wise:

• We’ve got the usual Wordpress feed blog set up for journalists (or anyone who is interested in the nuts and bolts information): West Wildfires 2007
• We’re ramping up the Red Cross Twitter channel 
• We’re trying to find someone on the ground out there to give us Red Cross live-blog-style updates.

We’re also doing a lot of listening and one-on-one responding because many in the affected area are taking photos, blogging, tweeting, leaving Facebook updates, etc.

We hope to stay up to date on exactly what’s happening so that we can anticipate the needs of those affected swiftly and efficiently in the days and weeks to come.

Finally, here is a video clip from an interview our own H.T. Linke gave on CNN this morning: Video account of shelter situation from Red Crosser HT Linke on CNN  

Filed under: Disaster Response, Flickr