Today an explosion at the power plant took out power around 6 am. No phones, no lights, no internet, no tv, no tweets (my cell phone does not have internet access). Hearing “explosion at power plant” gave the impression of days, not hours of darkness.
One long swath from Elizabeth N.C. through Chesapeake VA was dark – the rest of the city away from City Hall was fine. Schools did not close. There was no way to inform people. Many schools have generators.
As a local government what would you do to communicate with citizens? Remember portable radios have been replaced by MP3 players. TV channels on wind up radios no longer work.
Can you do social media via voice only?
SMS text blast to anyone with the same area code.
Stephen,
SMS – will have to look into that. My phone does not txt.
It was funny to hear the radio become “Social media blog” People started calling in to the public station reporting this or that. Asking questions. The radio station started “riding heard” or controlling myths and bad information.
The corporate stations where slow to change format and respond.
With no power – we had no internet, WiFi, Tv, computer access, etc. I was jumping around getting flash lights, candles and the camp stove out to make breakfast / coffee. It was way too cold outside to use the gas grill.
Social Media became the telephone and radio. My portable RedCross emergency radio no longer gets TV stations now that they have been “re – banded” for HD.