Social media proved a winner for Bay of Plenty Civil Defence during Cyclone Pam's visit.
The organisation's Facebook page membership soared 196 per cent from the previous week's 1500 'likes', with a total of 4,767 followers by the time Cyclone Pam moved offshore, with a total reach of 93,845 people.
Group Controller Clinton Naude said while the majority of those who visited the page lived in New Zealand, and most of those within the region, a surprisingly large number were checking in from Australia, the UK and other countries, including USA, South Africa, Canada, Germany, Philippines, Thailand and the Netherlands.
"That shows the spread of nationalities living in the Bay, and where their families and friends are checking in from."
Before Pam was due to arrive the Civil Defence team provided regular updates on how to prepare and reminders about what should be in an emergency kit, where to pick up sandbags and who to contact with issues.
People also stayed engaged after the storm passed, sharing photos and videos which the Civil Defence team encouraged as a record of the event and creating a forum for discussion between followers.
He said the team used Twitter a little during the event, but Facebook was by far the most useful place to disseminate information, along with regular media releases. Twitter was too restrictive in character count to be useful for information sharing.
"It shows that social media is a really valuable tool in the civil defence toolkit, and that as numbers grow we can use Facebook for preparations before an event as well as during one.
"We hope that these new Facebook followers will keep up with our posts after events, and that Facebook can continue to be a useful avenue to keep people informed. We'll always want more people to like our page."
