Last week and over the weekend as Hurricane Sandy swept through the Caribbean, badly affecting populations in Haiti (200 000 homeless with only 17 000 shelter places and over 70 dead), while farming and food projects were set back and in some cases wiped out; while in Cuba a large part of the coffee crop was destroyed and between 20%-30% of Jamaica's banana crop was ruined. To be fair, very little was made of this in the media and so I hadn't personally taken an interest as I was busy with work as I know so many of you are.

However this changed as the now sub-tropical storm Sandy moved towards the USA. There was blanket news coverage on TV, cable and on the Internet. Apparently 3 million tweets were sent with the hashtbag 'Sandy' (#Sandy). I used information that I knew coupled with what was happening on the ground through the Internet, and Tweetosphere to provide advice on before during and after. I have included some of the images I tweeted along with this discussion. I used, maps, links to pdf's, links to Twitter accounts most relevant to the affected areas, QR codes to preparedness and safety sharing Apps (you can use them instead of telephoning - landline or cell so that networks don't get jammed up) as well as short pieces of advice in the aftermath about driving etc.

I hope that they made some impact, but I realised that maybe some if you we're doing something similar, or were in fact in the path of the Hurricane/Storm and ad to prepare. I would like to ask that you let us know how you contributed. What is wonderful about this medium is that it gives experts, professionals and colleagues a chance to make a difference. Many of or Indian collages would ave experienced strong cyclones, others Typhoons...the advice is similar and useful, so like I used to ask my grandfather, 'what did you do in the war?' I would like to know the answer to the following:

What did you do while Hurricane Sandy was occurring?

I would like to add a plea that members follow @edu4drr on Twitter and retweet to their accounts when they think it relevant. The more we use the medium, the more people hear the right advice and messages and can become more resilient to disaster! I look forward to your replies and seeing you on Twitter!