A Rescue that Twitter and Text Messages Made Happen
At 3:12 a.m. on Monday September 11, 2017, in Daytona Beach, Florida, Kristina Barneski was panicking. Due to hurricane Irma, she had been trapped in her apartment, with water up to her knees. In a complete panic, Barneski sent a text to a friend, in hopes of being rescued. However, the text that she sent was to a friend in California, that had recently moved away: so unfortunately it wasn't of much help. Barneski continued to panic as the water kept rising. All of the doors in her house were held shut, due to the force of the rapidly rising water. In response to the dire conditions, Barneski decided to to get resourceful: she notified the public of her situation, by tweeting about it. By doing so, Barneski was able to keep in contact with her friend, and she was also able to grasp the attention of the Daytona Beach Fire Department. The department was then able to rescue Kristina from her home. CNN reported that Barneski was rescued just under two hours after she sent out the post on twitter, and that she is now safely with family and friends.
This empowering story was written for audiences of all ages. This article just goes to show that there truly is power in social media. Barneski' instinct to reach out to the public for help is the reason why she was able to be rescued. The beneficial access to the internet and other similar resources is the purpose behind this article. Although social media has its down-sides at times, in this particular situation, it is what helped save a life.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/us/social-media-irma-rescue-trnd/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/us/social-media-irma-rescue-trnd/index.html
Olivia Wall- Knowing that this women was fearing for her life is very sad and scary. Twitter can be very useful and it is very good that it was used for the correct purposes. That is amazing she was able to keep contact with people, updating them about her.Its amazing that the fire department was able to help her as well. I agree, social media has a lot of power behind it and if used for the right reasons, can save lives.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how she was so strong throughout this entire experience. Most people would be panicky and afraid but it says a lot about her as a person that she was able to be calm and resourceful.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is amazing that twitter was used, the first thing that comes to my mind is this: Why did she not call 911? They could have easily patched her through to the National Guard or someone that could have rescued her.
ReplyDeleteMargot Tortolani
ReplyDeleteAs troublesome as the internet can be, especially in this day and age, it's nice to see that good can come of it. However, I too was wondering why she didn't just call 911. I've read that some first responders were unable to take calls, but it's interesting to see how her first instinct was to tweet rather than go straight to the source. I would never have thought to tweet, and that was a very resourceful move on her part.
Using social media platforms is an amazing ides in my opinion! Yes, 911 is more practical but social media is something almost all of us cant get away from. So I think she made a good call! Truly amazing!
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