I have both a Facebook and Twitter account. I very rarely use Facebook, however I check Twitter almost daily. Twitter is also useful for traveling as here we have a lot of mountainous terrain and most radio station broadcasts do not travel far. On the otherhand, most major routes have cell/3G coverage and the same radio stations post weather and traffic reports on Twitter which on occassion have proven to be very useful. Also other drivers pick up on these reports and can provide much more timely and detailed updates which cannot be matched by any other traditional media outlets. I would suspect that in large scale disasters such as the recent hurricanes/tropical storms in the USA, Twitter and also Facebook was invaluable to many.

Most importantly - if you're using Twitter via SMS (text messaging) you will get information even in the lowest signal areas - places where you have "1 bar" signals or highly intermittent service/no service situations. The SMS network will retry messages and will get through when voice simply can't.

Facebook was a very useful tool during the flooding here in Brisbane earlier this year.

We mainly used it for updates from the emergency services. All websites seemed to be very slow due to the heavy additional loads on the servers as everyone tried to get information about flood levels / road closures etc. Facebook seemed unaffected and was running normally, so we could get trustworthy updates straight from the source without having to wait for the normal media outlets to broadcast (and in lots of cases add their spin).

Additionally, many people used it to broadcast help messages. For example, if someone's house was going under and they needed help finding emergency housing for their pets, they would broadcast their predicament and in return offers of help would come back. Special facebook pages were set up for people to post their needs in such a way. So if you have spare space and your house is high on a hill, you can post an offer of help and people can contact you directly.

We also used facebook to 'talk' to friends who were in danger of being flooded and needed to talk to someone to stay calm without blocking up their phone lines.

I don't use Facebook myself for social media but during an emergency its another really valuable communication tool which can also be a boredom / stress saver. A multi use tool :-)

One note: often the info is delivered faster, but it is just as often wrong. Check sources.

Our local Anchorage muni office of emergency management just posted this link on Facebook regarding "Survivors Search for Help Online Following Disasters, Analysis Finds".

One quote is "This analysis shows that contrary to what one might expect, the Internet has proven to be a resilient resource, providing information on recovery assistance as well as the condition of friends and family following a disaster."

http://www.emergencymgmt.com/safety/Surv...71326a6333c176a

From the website Emergency Management dot com.

My 3-year-old's preschool just sent home a notice this week; they will be using Twitter to communicate emergency school closings due to severe weather or other unplanned events. I have to admit, it will probably be much more effective than a phone tree. Not only will the message get out faster, even on a compromised mobile network, but the staff will be free to focus on the children rather than making phone calls.

Twitter is a wonderful, wonderful tool. I'd encourage you folks to at least give it a try.

Most of the local FD's, OEM's etc in my area use it.