It can be useful if the infrastructure is still up, and you're bugging in.

The opposite is also true, SDG&E's twitter post "If you have a personal family emergency plan, please activate it now" during last week’s power outage was on the far side of useless. An overloaded cell network, just like the last couple of emergencies, and no power meant little to no internet access.

For information dissemination to the general public, there's reverse 911, the "Emergency Broadcast System", and the emergency radio station that everybody is already monitoring.

For information to your friends/family, a SMS or phone tree is a much more reliable way of telling everybody where you are (e.g. Evac’d to Q stadium, section A7, pass it on)


If you're concerned about privacy on FB, just do what I do and keep your setting cranked up to the max. No email, no birthday, or any other identifying information is up there. Just a a profile picture, and nobody can access my wall unless I 'friend' them.