Twitter

I planned to write a post for this Monday about Google+.  I’ve grown fond of this new entry in the social media mix and wanted to share how I’ve found it useful since it’s introduction.  Then there was the earthquake. Now, I lived in San Diego for 5 years and happened to be in Napa for the 2000 quake, so I know a quake when I’m in one.  Yet Tuesday’s quake snuck up on me and my friend Bonnie as we ate lunch at Brunswick Square mall. First, we thought someone moved the row of booths.  Oh, wait, we were the only people in that row of booths!  Then Bonnie noticed the lamps swaying.  We looked at each other and asked, “Earthquake?” because we get a lot of interesting experiences in New Jersey but earthquakes aren’t usually near the top of the list.

Once it stopped, everyone in the restaurant started asking if we felt it and was it an earthquake?

Then, most people in the restaurant got on Twitter.

The first tweet I saw was from @geekinhard who felt the quake in Toronto so I immediately assumed it was a Canadian quake.  After all, it was a very polite and understated quake.  Then Tweetdeck lit up with tweets, and we all knew it was centered in Virginia and caused very little damage.  Such a minor incident that the Twitter jokes started almost as soon as the quake stopped.

Now we have Hurricane Irene.  Yes, the jokes started days ago, but so did the flow of very useful information.  I took my car back into the shop Thursday unaware of the uproar the hurricane would cause as the day went along.  Thursday evening, I saw twitpics of the empty wasteland that was the Neptune Walmart and read tweets from Acme cashiers that the stores were packed with people doing their required predisaster shopping.

Carless, I started to worry.  Friday morning, I awoke to information about gas lines that rivaled the fuel crisis of the 70s.  I hastily called a cab, got my car, and waited 20 minutes in an orderly gas line with folks chatting and laughing through car windows, nothing like the gas line confrontations during crises I saw when I was in Haiti.  I hit my local Foodtown, busy but still well stocked, which I tweeted in case others were out looking for that last case of water or loaf of bread.

My daughter originally planned to drive back to college today, but when I saw multiple twitter accounts Friday afternoon warning that the Parkway would close south of Exit 98 (our exit) at 8 p.m. Friday, we did an about face, got her quickly packed, and on the road to Pennsylvania after dinner. While I live 2 miles from the ocean and a few blocks from a bay, I didn’t expect to be evacuated especially with one of the two shelters in our county located at the town’s high school.  Then, a few friends on Twitter notified me that parts of my area were under mandatory evacuation and streets around me would be closed Sunday morning.  Good information even if it did induce a minor freakout.

Late Friday, I needed a break from the barrage of anxiety inducing information on Twitter.  I’d saved @aplayfulday‘s newest podcast for a time when I could sit, knit and enjoy.  This was just such a time.  The first half of the hourlong podcast was light and all about knitting.  In the second half, the podcaster recounted and reflected upon the incidents leading up to, during, and after the London riots.  As I listened to her deeply felt emotions regarding her experiences earlier this month, I realized that we can prepare for a hurricane but how do we prepare for something so devastating to a community as that rioting?  Those riots were as destructive to the various communities where they occurred as any natural disaster, yet no one rushed out to prepare or even stop it, and those who volunteered during the cleanup effort were greeted with animosity and anger from many of their fellow citizens.

As I sat worrying about my home and animals as this storm approaches, listening to her talk about events far removed from me, I understood why Twitter is the social media tool we turn to in crisis.  I wrote about community when I locked my account, and the hurricane just underscored how helpful and supportive a Twitter community can be.  Twitter gets the information out fast and allows us to react just as quickly.  People in the next town offer advice and people on the other side of the ocean express their concern.  I have to say I was touched when @caithnesscraft, a podcaster from Scotland, sent me a number of tweets worried about my welfare.  I’ll probably never meet her in person, but I do know her gigglecast and a few older podcasts are loaded on my iPod just in case I need a smile when the storm gets bad.  I think her lovely Scottish accent will be just perfect for a stormy New Jersey night!

This morning is eerily quiet especially for a Saturday.  No lawn equipment buzzing, no cars packed with families driving off to the beach, no next door neighbor screaming at her husband to clean the grill before dinner, no dogs barking, no summer music playing. I tweeted earlier that I feel like Will Smith in I am Legend.  I’m sure you can guess, the Twitterverse responded.  We may not be riding out the storm in the same house or shelter, but as long as the power stays up or our phones are charged, this Twitter community will stay in touch with its own and see us through to a sunny Jersey Shore Monday!