Keri Stephens gave a TEDx Talk on her team’s Hurricane Harvey Research that focused on calls for help made through social media.

People who needed rescue during the 2017 Hurricane Harvey that hit the coast of Texas often posted calls for help on social media. Keri Stephens had an opportunity to share some of the research findings, and ideas for rethinking disaster communication, during a TEDx Talk on September 15, 2018.  Here is a link to Facebook live interview conducted shortly after her talk: https://www.facebook.com/TEDxPAC/videos/690843317961486/?t=0

Major Take Aways:

1.  With all the digital communication options today, people need to have a personal preparedness plan that includes communication.  Get your bottled water, and talk to friends and family about how you want to use mobile communication and social media before a disaster hits.
2. A lack of interoperability (ability to connect to one another through communication technologies) means people often turn to personal mobile phones to bridge that gap.
3. Today the speed at which calls for help can be shared is both amazing and creates challenges for coordination.
4. Moving forward, we need to include people who speak different languages and people from diverse cultures to help us better understand how social and mobile media can be used to communicate during disasters.

A special thank you to Tony Longoria and Palo Alto College for hosting such a wonderful event!