Twitter on the spot with New Zealand quake news
I saw reports a short time ago of a 7.0 earthquake rattling the South Island of New Zealand and headed directly to Twitter. The quake hit at 4:35 a.m. Saturday, New Zealand time.
This is a good example of Twitter’s power as an information source. The photos, videos and bits of information are coming from people that were shaken from their sleep. There are photos of buildings reduced to rubble, cars covered with debris and streets littered with bricks. Many people are pointing to reliable sources of information, such as news websites and the U.S. Geological Society site.
I didn't find too many reports doing a search on the hashtag "earthquake" (#earthquake), but did find several links using #NZQuake and #eqnz
Try it:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23NZQuake
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23eqnz
Here are some of the better tweets leading to info:
@five15design:
More #CHCH Pics Central CHCH #EQNZ http://twitpic.com/2kwc34 http://twitpic.com/2kwc27
@RyanNorthover:
Just uploaded to YouTube, aftershock videos: http://youtu.be/kyUlM74Jnss & http://youtu.be/g4Ekq6GH9LQ
@chadcat:
reportedly pics of the of damage from Christchurch #NZquake http://tweetphoto.com/43037137 - also http://flic.kr/p/8xN1aB
@TheNewsBlotter:
Latest update from the Christchurch newspaper http://bit.ly/cpa1iZ
@RichardA:
NZHerald is liveblogging
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10671049
- RNZ National prog reading a short story (!), The Press struggling...
From Stuff.co.nz (A New Zealand national news site):
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986/Massive-7-4-quake-hits-South-Island
