From the rubble of the recent catastrophic earthquake in Turkey, a 20-year-old college student pleaded for help in a video posted to social media:
“We were on the second floor. My uncle doesn’t sound well. Please come and rescue us. Please everyone come and rescue us now.”
He added his address and some other information.
Rescuers reached him in time.
It’s just one example of the stories that emerge from disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and blizzards.
Daniel Aldrich, director at Northeastern University’s Security and Resilience Studies Program, studies the role of social networks and social media in disasters. He turned to that line of study after his home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, six weeks after he and his family moved to New Orleans in 2005.
