When I first heard of the earthquake that hit Northern California, I was worried. After all, my 98-year-old grandma lives in Fortuna, which is just a stone’s throw from Ferndale, the closest town to the epicenter and my home for several years when I was a teenager. With my dad trying to raise my grandma on the phone (turns out she’s just fine), the first place I turned for news was Twitter. As is customary these days, several citizen reports provided news several minutes ahead of the traditional media.
But there was one traditional media outlet that was way ahead of everyone else. The Ferndale Enterprise, a very small paper with a history stretching back to 1878, is publishing up-to-the-minute news on Twitter. Keep in mind, this is a paper in a dairy farming town of 1,300. So small a paper, it doesn’t even publish news on its website.
But minutes after the quake, the Enterprise began tweeting news and photos of the damage — food in the aisles at the grocery story (above), a store owner sweeping up glass (the photo appeared on the home page of msnbc.com), and my personal favorite — a falling caribou head that narrowly missed an employee at the Ferndale Meat Company. Yet another Twitpic from @FrndEnterprise appeared on the home page of LATimes.com.
Then the aftershocks began. “Whoa…that was a good one..aftershock….hang on,” explained one Tweet, followed moments later by, “Fire whistle in Ferndale just went off…hang on.” And the Enterprise published quotes, too: “Ferndale Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Tom Grinsell on Main Street just after quake: ‘I had to dig out of my house to get here.'” And another Tweet: “‘They say you’re not supposed to run outside, but I did…there were bottles falling everywhere,’ said Paul Christensen, Ferndale J&W Liquors.”
Fox News’ Julie Banderas messaged @FrndEnterprise and was soon interviewing the editor on the air. “She was great!” Banderas explained in a Tweet. CNN’s Nick Valencia also messaged the editor on Twitter, “Are you available for interviews?” KING5.com in Seattle asked to use photos (as did we), and received a prompt reply.
Meanwhile, Independent news site Humboldt Online, lost power and was able to post a short update on generator power. @AmyEureka, a resident in nearby Eureka, posted a steady stream of updates on Twitter, including several photos. A little further north, @Twumboldt was on the story as well. But in the end, the little Ferndale Enterprise, one of the smallest papers in the country, provided the best coverage of all.
Plus: Twitter pics tell the story of the earthquake (Mashable)