Oct 06

Typhoon Ketsana: How Facebook, Twitter and Plurk Helped Save & Unite the Filipinos

Miles Montecillo

by Miles Montecillo
Category: Events, Philippines, Research & Insights

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The Philippines’ capital, Metro Manila experienced what could be the worst typhoon to ever hit the country in 4 decades, bringing in a month’s worth of rainfall in just 9 hours. Typhoon Ondoy (International name: Typhoon Ketsana) washed away houses, shanties and turned roads into raging rivers forcing residents to seek refuge on top of homes and cars where some even waited for 48 hours to be rescued. The government declared the nation in a state of calamity with certain areas suffering from 1-story deep flood water. To date, the death toll stands at 246 with over 400,000 families left homeless.

In the face of calamity in the digital realm, social networking sites saved the nation. On the same day, when everyone’s mobile signals were lost, people resorted to Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and even Yahoo! Messenger to connect to one another and check on everyone else’s status. Suddenly, what used to be a barrage of applications and quiz updates in Facebook turned into a reliable source of information of news on Typhoon Ondoy.

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