It was a terrible night. DANA over Valencia caused a tragedy and there were moments of real collapse for hours. Emergency services were overwhelmed, communications were down and television stations were slow to respond. But in the midst of this situation, social networks showed their best side.

There’s been a lot of talk about social networks like X, and not always in a positive way. The increasingly widespread view is that they are so toxic that we would be better off without them, but fortunately they are capable of doing the best they can. In this way, it is an ideal real-time communication channel for sharing important messages.

It’s easy for some messages on X to go viral, especially if they’re dramatic. This happens every day. But when several of them come to us at the same time about the same issue, something happens. This is exactly what we started to see yesterday afternoon. Flooded cars, flooded shopping malls, stranded people… each of them are again alarming messages.

Asking for and finding help

This live information coming to us through social networks such as X or TikTok contrasted with the information service on public television. Already considered one of the most serious meteorological disasters in Spanish history, the event was not enough to paralyze RTVE’s regular programming. Since the seriousness of the issue was known until midnight, it was not decided to make a special news. Spanish public television was not at the same level and messages of great informative value were constantly received on X..

Generalitat Valenciana’s emergency services had problems responding to all calls to 112. But beyond the logical collapse by phone, the account of the GVA112 Emergency Coordination Center constantly offered information on social networks.

The account provided weather updates as well as the condition of the roads; Denying false news and explaining different ways to alert emergency services. Pure service knowledge.

But not only official accounts did their part. It consists of social networks users and emergency services received many warning messages yesterday.

Users warn people who are stranded; Hundreds of users share this information and provide visibility to reach emergency services. At a time when phone support was not enough, social networks became an additional tool. It has one advantage: it works continuously.

The incident in Valencia once again revealed the importance of social networks in our society. In the first hours they tried to confirm whether anything serious had happened; They served to communicate and help those affected in the worst moments. It has also been an excellent way to access official information.

Immediacy of information plays an important role. As an example, we have the Civil Protection ES-Alert service. The system, which was activated on different occasions yesterday, reached the mobile phones of Valencians at a time when rain caused problems for hours.

The first alarm came from the Emergency Coordination Center at 12.20. But as Las Provincias points out, The first alarm on mobile phones did not come until 20.12.. It is too late because as of 16:00, areas of almost 350 liters per square meter were formed. By then, there were already roads like A-3 with thousands of drivers and no exits.

Social networks are a whirlwind of information and in many cases they overdo it, but the crisis with DANA in Valencia allowed their best side to shine. Because in emergency situations, many users want to do their part.

Image | Bombers Consorci VLC

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