When the earthquake initially hit Christchurch in the early hours of Saturday morning it seemed that all major communication links were severed. However, we soon realised that people within the earthquake zone were relying on more than their phones to contact the outside world. Social media sites were firing out questions, theories and updates. 

So, I decided to try and look into the World Wide Web’s reaction to Canterbury’s earthquake, through the power of online media:

1) Twitter - the most immediate activity came from the instant messaging service, with people breaking news of the quakes initial 7.1 magnitude online.

2) Facebook - was used as a refuge to locate friends and family through groups such as Earthquake in New Zealand. 

3) And then there was the very inspirational Facebook page titled Student Volunteer Base for Earthquake Clean-up Crew. This was set up to recruit students (and has now shifted to the general public), who want to donate their time and energy to helping clean up Christchurch, with the volunteer number currently sitting at 3,488 and counting.

4) Flickr – for those who happened to have a camera nearby they were able to post their photos online; here is an album dedicated to capturing the destruction down south. See here for another Flickr photo of some stranded and desperate web surfers resorting to using the wifi outside a closed Christchurch library. 

5) YouTube – people posted their earthquake experiences online, and many news channels chose to use the videos as firsthand accounts of the quake.

6) Google Trends – shows the dramatic Google search for Christchurch, earthquakes and New Zealand during the first 24 hours after the initial quake. 

7) Trendistic.com - shows the level of online activity at the moment the earthquake struck (click on time slices of the graph for tweets from that period).

With the power of the internet and social media sites that I have highlighted, it is easy see how important and commonplace sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube have become in the wake of natural disasters. I mean I know if I couldn’t access the internet for any length of time, I would definitely start experiencing major palpitations.

What do you think you would do in your hour of need, dial 111 or tweet?

I would like to take this opportunity to say on behalf of the Ideas Shop team, that our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by these horrible events, and we wish you all a healthy and speedy recovery.