Facebook played major part in Hampton’s hurricane response

HAMPTON – Social media played a major role in the way the City of Hampton communicated with the public during Hurricane Irene, representing the first time networking sites played a significant part in the city’s response to a storm.

The role played by social networks such as Facebook during the hurricane was one of the issues discussed at a special meeting called Wednesday in the wake of the storm on Aug. 27 and 28. In contrast, back in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel swept across Hampton Roads, social networking was not a tool available to the city

“During this storm we used social media a lot more than we have in the past,” City Manager Mary Bunting told the city council Wednesday. “Word got around so much that we had 600 new subscribers to our Facebook page during the four days before and during the event … it gave us the ability to immediately push out facts, tips and piece of information,” Bunting said.

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Mayor Molly Joseph Ward said for some people who lost power, the only way they could receive information during the storm was via their smart phones.

At the meeting the council also confirmed emergency declarations made before the storm and backed amendments to the city’s ordinance on curfews during emergencies.

State law requires an emergency declaration being ratified by the council within 14 days of its imposition.

Assistant City Manager James Gray said the city activated its emergency center on Aug. 24 – about three days before the hurricane arrived. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency on Aug. 25. Bunting declared a local state of emergency later on the same day.

Gray said this made certain resources available to local authorities. The city requested six high water vehicles in anticipation of flooding and a National Guard unit was put on alert to assist the city, Gray said.

“Even though we didn’t need them they were available to us,” he said.

Gray said the city carried out four sets of reverse 911 calls warning of anticipated flooding or detailing shelters for people with special needs. One of the calls was the mandatory evacuation for about 20,000 households located in the category 1 storm surge areas, while a fourth call was for the mandatory curfew.

“We have a database of phone numbers of all Hampton citizens about 77,000 landline numbers,” he said. He also said by calling Hampton’s 311 center citizens could get their cell phone numbers included, noting cell phones were replacing landlines for some members of the younger generation.

See the Hampton Matters blog at dailypress.com/hamptonmatters

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Facebook Names Erskine Bowles to Board, Expanding Size to Seven Members

Facebook Inc., the world’s most
popular social-networking service, named Erskine Bowles, a
member of former President Bill Clinton’s administration, as a
director, expanding the board to seven members.

Bowles, who most recently served as co-chair of President
Barack Obama’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, was White House chief of staff under
Clinton from 1996 to 1998, the company said today. Bowles also
was president of the University of North Carolina system from
2006 to 2010.

“Erskine has held important roles in government, academia
and business which have given him insight into how to build
organizations and navigate complex issues,” said Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook, in a statement.
“Along with his experience founding companies, this will be
very valuable as we continue building new things to help make
the world more open and connected.”

Facebook is expanding its board while preparing to either
disclose financial data or hold an initial public offering by
April. The company said in June that Reed Hastings, chief
executive officer of Netflix Inc., joined the board.

Bowles is also a director of bank holding company Morgan
Stanley (MS), rail transportation provider Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) and
retailer Belk Inc. (BLKIA)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Brian Womack in San Francisco at
bwomack1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net.

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