2nd December, 2015: Heavy rainfall for more than half a month in Chennai has flooded the city, resulting in the disruption of regular life. Chennai citizens have turned to Twitter in this situation of crisis to report and share helpline numbers, crisis relief efforts and safety tips. Popular hashtags that Chennai residents are using for real-time updates are #ChennaiRains, #ChennaiFloods and now #ChennaiRainsHelp as the focus turns to flood rescue and relief efforts, with over 500,000 related Tweets in the past 24 hours.
Residents in Chennai are Tweeting with these three hashtags to help in organised rescue operations, aid government bodies, amplify crucial messages to citizens, warn citizens in key affected areas, and provide a sense of real-time support to citizens caught in the floods. On Twitter, users can find the latest information on flooded areas, forecast updates, train schedules, taxi services, helpline numbers, and crisis relief programmes. Additionally, photos and videos are shared on the platform, providing citizens with a real-time view of what is going on in the streets of Chennai.
Embeddable Tweet:https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/671701461214990336
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/i/moments/671768642510594052
Raheel Khursheed, Head of News and Government Partnerships, Twitter India said, “The real-time, public nature of Twitter enables the platform to be used in times of crisis for disaster relief and emergency management. For the Chennai floods, we are seeing a great response as citizens are actively reporting on the situation from different parts of the city, and sharing it on Twitter. More than that, residents are crowdsourcing the most useful Tweets that will help fellow Indians with crisis relief tips, safety measures, and forecast updates. It is amazing to see the community unite to provide assistance and save lives, one Tweet at a time.”
Several Twitter accounts to follow for real-time updates on #ChennaiRains:
- @ChennaiConnect (https://twitter.com/ChennaiConnect)
- Chennai Weather (@ChennaiWeather)
- Voice in Crisis Relief (@incrisisrelief)
- Indian Army (@adgpi)
- Sandy (@sandygrains)
- Volunteers Org (@VolunteersOrg)
- Malini Parthasarathy (@MaliniP)
Users can also subscribe to this Twitter list for regular updates on #ChennaiRains: https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/lists/chennairains
About Twitter:
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) enables everyone to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. The service can be accessed at Twitter.com, on a wide variety of mobile devices and via text message. Available in more than 35 languages, Twitter has more than 320 million monthly active users. For more information, visit discover.twitter.com or follow @TwitterIndia.