Getting Disaster-Ready with Social Media
As a NYC professional organizer, I have been focusing all month on the upcoming national preparedness month and America’s PrepareAthon in order to serve my clients and increase awareness throughout the city.
I’ve discussed how to get your home ready using my disaster-related home organizing tips, how to get your office ready, how to get yourself ready personally, and how to make use of apps that assist with hurricane preparedness and response.
Today I’m going to focus on the many ways that social media is being brought to bear here in the greatest city in the world. Hurricane Sandy taught us, among other things, that people often have access to social media even when cell service down.
So, understandably, I want to remind everyone of the available social media tools that you might not ordinarily think of but could prove to be valuable sources of information should there be a disaster in New York City.
Here are a list of city, state, and federal agencies’ social media platforms that are worth loading into a “Disaster” bookmark on your mobile device’s web browser, as well as your web browsers on home and office computers for times of crisis:
- New York City Fire Department: Twitter, Facebook
- New York City Police Department: Twitter, Facebook
- City of New York: Twitter, Facebook
- NYC’s Office of Emergency Management: Twitter, Facebook
- Con Edison: Twitter, Facebook
- New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services: Twitter
- New York State Department of Health: twitter, Facebook
- FEMA: Twitter, Facebook
As a NYC professional organizer, I can say that one of my home organizing tips is to focus on adopting a proactive mindset rather than a reactive one. By thinking ahead – whether it’s choosing your next day’s outfit before going to bed, preparing school lunches for the next day, or consolidating trips to the office supply store – we are better able to address whatever comes our way. When it comes to being prepared for disasters, though, planning ahead is an absolute necessity. So, let’s get planning!