June 26, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
As flood waters inundated large swaths of the Midwest, the American Red Cross used two blogs to get information out to the public.
The organization used blogging software to create an online newsroom that brought together information about shelter locations and feeding programs, news alerts, and press releases from Red Cross chapters in the affected states.
By putting all of the information in one place, the organization hopes to cut down on the number of calls from reporters that Red Cross employees and volunteers have to answer in the midst of the crisis, says Wendy Harman, senior specialist for interactive media at the American Red Cross, in Washington.
The online newsroom is a temporary site that will be taken down after relief efforts are over. But the organization is also using its regular blog, Red Cross Chat, to tell the story of the disaster and help the public understand its human dimensions.
The organization is posting photographs on Flickr and video on YouTube to show the extent of the flooding, and volunteers are recording audio updates about their work and the conditions they’re seeing.
In one audio report, Larry Fortmiller, a volunteer from California, talked about the Father’s Day cakes that were served at a shelter that the Red Cross set up at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“It’s kind of a moment to stand back and recognize that it’s a special day for all the dads who are here or who are volunteering,” Mr. Fortmiller said in his dispatch.
The Red Cross had been teaching its public-affairs volunteers to use the technologies involved so that they would be ready when the next big disaster hit, says Ms. Harman.
“We’ve been talking about it for months,” she says. “They all knew that when the time came this is part of what they were going to have to do on the ground.”
To get there: Go to http://redcrossmidwestflooding.wordpress.com and http://redcrosschat.org.
