In the fall of 2018, I presented my first TEDxTalk in San Antonio, Texas.  I presented data from our research study on Hurricane Harvey and how people posted calls for help on social media.   It was an inspiring experience because the other presenters that day also had amazing stories to tell.  Trying to remember to stand on that iconic red dot was challenging for me: I like to move around when I speak.  But the audience was receptive and the team running the event was supportive.

Here are a few of the take-aways from the talk:

• Have a communication plan for disasters.  Talk to friends and family and let them know how you plan to communicate any needs you have before the disaster strikes.
• Realize that digital communication means messages travel much faster than the older analog technologies.
• Interoperability, meaning that people have communication technologies capable of connecting with one another, is very important.  In our study, mobile phones played that role whether people were average citizens or emergency responders.
• Social media, especially private social media, is used in diverse ways that include swapping rescue information.

Please take a look at our website where we share more details about our published papers and the processes our team used to analyze data.