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YOUTH ARE AWESOME

Youth Are Awesome, commonly referred to as YAA, is a blog written by youth for youth. YAA provides the youth of Calgary a place to amplify their voices and perspectives on what is happening around them. Youth Are Awesome is a program of Youth Central.

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HomeUncategorizedThose Awareness Events in 2013 - #ABFlood and #YYCFlood efforts, powered by...

Those Awareness Events in 2013 – #ABFlood and #YYCFlood efforts, powered by social media

(A friendly note – please enjoy all of our blogger’s contributions on the 2013 Alberta Floods thatĀ canĀ found HERE)

It started with a flood, and it will end with a flood.

The surging water was able to lash out a flood of physical damage; this disaster has been declared by Premier Redford as the largest flood to ever happen in Alberta. In contrast, it hasn’t washed out the resilience of Albertans; in fact, it is far from doing so. Let this perhaps be one of the strongest displays of solidarity and perseverance. This tweet perfectly alludes to our situation:

This month’s article in my awareness events series will be different from previous ones; intuition provoked our awareness that the flood victims require assistance in multiple aspects. Our information gateway in the form of social media did the rest. Let’s outline some of those social media trends that has done wonders in promoting this awareness and activating goodwill all around.

yycflood twitter

ABFLoodTwitter

#yycfloodĀ (#yycfloods), #abfloodĀ (#abfloods), #medhat (#mhflood), and #highriver on Twitter –Ā Being constantly updated with fresh content, these hashtags have been utilized heavily by both official sources and local citizens.Ā @cityofcalgary, @CalgaryPolice, andĀ @AB_EmergAlert, and @nenshi himselfĀ are just some of the notable government sources that are conveying essential information about developments. In turn, our media and citizens (there are just way too many active figures to count) are using this hashtag to document this flood in their neck of the woods and to retweet information to their followers.

Being the broadest, most representative of the Twitterverse’s response to this disaster, #ABFlood in particular is currently a Calgary trend on Twitter!

twittertrend

yychelpstwitter

#yychelpsĀ and #yycfloodheroĀ on Twitter –Ā These hashtags are dedicated specifically to bring awareness of the need for all kinds of assistance and to express gratitude to those who provide them. Countless organizations including @UnitedWayCgy, @calgarydropin, @RedCrossAB, and @tascalgaryĀ are working on their front to fulfill their mission and update everyone on the help they require.Ā @660News in particular is advocating for the use of #yycfloodheros to recognize all those dedicated Calgarians that impact all corners of Calgary.

yvcgreedy

#yycgreedyĀ –Ā Beware of price gouging! This hashtag aims to document alleged incidents of such illegal price hikes. Ā Read this Metro News article that outlines some of the viral incidents.

YYCFLood twitter account2

yychelpstwitteraccount

@YYCFlood and @yychelpsĀ –Ā These two are important aggregator acccounts on Twitter regarding the flood. YYCFlood serves to retweet all kinds of news pertaining to the floods while yychelps is sharing info on where to volunteer on rebuilding Southern Alberta. The latter has their own website with valuable links.

 

facebookhashtags

Hashtags on Facebook –Ā New to the implementation of hashtags, the Facebook community has also utilized all of these hashtags. Click away – #yycfloodĀ (#yycfloods), #abfloodĀ (#abfloods), #medhatĀ (#mhflood), #highriver, #yychelps, #yycfloodhero, #yycgreedy. Do note though that you can only search for those hashtags if you have a Facebook account and are logged in to it.

calgary clean up

Calgary Clean UpĀ –Ā This popular pick is one of the Facebook community pages set up for aggregating updates on our flood situation. This initiative is run by YYChelps.caĀ and as you can see, it has already garned 28,063 likes as of Sunday night.

CalgaryFlood

Calgary FloodĀ This is one of the other Facebook pages that documents the floods with some interesting flood photos from everyday citizens being shared by them. Oh, who can forget this?

Siksika Facebook Page

Siksika First Nation’s Flood Info – Ā Siksika First Nations has been severely hit by this flood; they have also created a facebook page for news related to their rebuilding efforts.

Google Crisis Map

Google Crisis Map – The Google Crisis Response has uploaded a map with pinpoints for warnings and evacuation zones across Southern Alberta.

floodsshelterinteractive

Interactive Google MapĀ –Ā Global News created a mapĀ that displays shelter listings from other helpful Calgarians. This map is a public collaboration and you can add to the list.

Pinterest YYCFLoods

FlickrGroup

Photo-crazy PinterestĀ and Flickr –Ā On Pinterest, #YYCFlood is flooded with all sorts of damage photos; the City of Calgary has also created a Calgary Flood Flickr group.

We YVC volunteers want to lend a hand too – If you are an organization looking for help for the clean-up efforts and would like some of us youth to assist you, please DM @YouthCentralYYC!

PleaseĀ don’tĀ hesitate to inform me of any social media sources I may have missed or correct me on anything by dropping me a comment or tweeting me through @WentaoHello. I welcome any links that you give me to help our readers get informed. The flood of information is priceless in this challenge.

Thank you to all of those who are maintaining these social media links! You can read the previous articles on my series here and I strongly urge you to read our other bloggers’ 2013 Flood posts through this tag!

Wentao
Wentaohttp://YouthAreAwesome.com/author/wentao
I could say I'm just another YAA contributor, but you don't want to underestimate the leadership power of all my fellow youth. From blogging, I've learned that writing is great, but it's versatility can only come when it provokes discussion and inquiry, and that's what we can collectively do best. I want to rather get to know your insights, so always feel free to shoot me comments here and there.
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