MySpace Links Users to Hurricane Emergency Alerts

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are hugely popular – and might even have a purpose other than socializing with people. Can they actually help alert the public to impending disaster?

According to an article in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, The Department of Homeland Security has teamed up with social networking website MySpace to spread the news on hurricanes through the site’s users.

The system was first put to the test early last week, as Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast. DHS officials telephoned MySpace executives to fast track this disaster alert system project. The program then launched a software application that automatically feeds hurricane information from federal disaster agencies to MySpace users.

“What you are seeing us doing with DHS and FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is the beginning of bigger things to come in the future,” MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam told the paper. “Tragedy often inspires people to do great things and this has happened here.”

MySpace users can download a small application that links profile pages to federal information including finding dislocated hurricane victims; help in storm-slammed areas and online tracking of coming storms.

To read the full article, click here: http://news.smh.com.au/technology/myspace-links-users-to-us-hurricane-emergency-alerts-20080905-4afq.html