In just over week’s time, Hurricane Sandy went from forming into a tropical storm near the western Caribbean Sea to dissipating over the northeastern coast of the United States and Canada. It left in its wake what is currently 185 confirmed fatalities and an estimated $50 billion in damages.
In today’s technology and social media age, one of the best ways to communicate the impending danger and resulting relief effort to the masses is through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media outlets.
That’s one of the many steps New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took in preparation for Hurricane Sandy and continues to throughout the days and weeks after as the state of New Jersey recovers.
Christie’s first tweet regarding the superstorm came on Oct. 26, just four days after it formed.
Sandy didn’t make landfall for another three days.
During that time, Christie’s presence on Twitter and that of his office as the Governor of New Jersey were incredibly apparent. As soon as his office got to work on preparing for the incoming storm, Christie took to Twitter to keep his over 285,000 followers updated. These tweets also informed many area and even national news outlets, which they could then pass on to their readers, viewers and listeners.
His Twitter feed also provided vital preparation and evacuation information via retweets of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, the Red Cross, FEMA, and even Jersey Central Power and Light.
Twitter wasn’t the only outlet utilized by Gov. Christie’s office. He’s been very active on both Facebook and YouTube as well. The Governor’s Facebook page has over 84,000 “likes” and just like the Twitter feed, has been updated with posts constantly since awareness arose of Sandy’s potential. Along with the emergency updates, Facebook allowed for many more pictures to be shared for people to really get a visual of the seriousness of what was going on, the resulting devastation across the state, and inside look at the relief effort.
Christie has also posted 24 videos on its YouTube channel related to Hurricane Sandy. All but the newest of which have thousands of views, tens of thousands of views, or in one case, over 200,000 views.