Facebook Has No Quiet Before The Irene Storm

People living on the U.S. Atlantic coast are seeing their news fill up with posts about Hurricane Irene, almost to the exclusion of all other topics. While government agencies and disaster relief groups have been posting on Facebook about the storm for nearly four days, individual users of the social network have begun chiming in over the past 24 hours. And these posts are reaching a crescendo right now, going up faster than ten posts per second. One status update commented that 75 percent of the poster's news feed consisted of posts related to Hurricane Irene. Obviously, the closer a user lives to the areas at risk, the more ubiquitous Irene posts are in that person's news feed. While a lot of individuals began warning one another yesterday about the coming storm -- some of them in an official capacity and others reposting warnings -- this activity increased in tempo as various officials on the east coast called for evacuations. Users in the New York City area have been sharing video footage of Mayor Mike Bloomberg urging people in low-lying areas to get started on plans to leave, even though the storm won't hit until Sunday. A fair number of people are questioning the warnings and expressing frustration about the coming storm. But even people elsewhere are seeing plenty of Irene posts, and only some of them are from friends who live on the east coast. Those dwelling further inland are posting prayers for people residing in the areas likely to be affected by the storm. While some of these posts were written by the posters, many are reposts of a viral status update including an text rendition of heart-shaped balloons (pictured, above right). This meme is spreading across the site at a rate of about one post every other second, as of this writing. Amid all of the seriousness, some people are attempting to infuse some comic relief into the storm dialogue, with jokes including puns and other good-natured posts. More of these postings seem to come from folks living near the east coast than elsewhere. Readers, what are your friends posting on Facebook about Hurricane Irene?

Social Pro Daily

Facebook Has No Quiet Before The Irene Storm

People living on the U.S. Atlantic coast are seeing their news fill up with posts about Hurricane Irene.

Jackie Cohen

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Jackie Cohen