Disaster website rises from bushfire ashes
Disaster website rises from bushfire ashes
19 June 2013
published by www.abc.net.au
Australia — A social media expert has praised a new website designed to connect Tasmanians during natural disasters.
The tassie-fires-we-can-help site has been set up to complement a Facebook page set up during the January bushfires by Hobart woman Mel Irons.
Ms Irons says the site will include posts with essential community information during future disasters.
“Should another disaster happen, the Facebook page is still the number one thing I would encourage people to use,” she said.
“But the new website is just more of a place for essential information because Facebook is very hard to go back through.
“I posted about 800 times in the first couple of days so to go back and find a post was almost impossible.”
Social media expert Sam Mutimer says online posts are not always reliable but are often the quickest way to become informed during emergencies.
“It’s definitely a means to grow that information and share it and I think more people are more likely to connect and engage through social than any other platform,” he said.
The new website is sponsored by 13 local businesses.
The Tasmanian Government says it will work closely with the website’s operators.
The State Government will release its own public information website later this year.
The Emergency Services Minister, David O’Byrne, warns social media cannot always be trusted and says the Government will work with Ms Irons to verify information.
“Well government will obviously be the trusted source in terms of official information and sometimes people outside of government get information earlier or are able to provide better information via social networking,” he said.
“We saw that during the January bushfires.”
