ST. ALBANS, West Virginia -
It's been just over a month since a destructive storm blew through the area knocking down power lines and leaving many without cable and phone service.
Without the traditional forms of communication local and county leaders had to find new ways to get important information out to the public.
"I don't know what I would have done without it," said St. Albans resident Jeff Lanham about Facebook. "It just enabled me to have contact with the outside world."
Lanham was at home recovering from a surgery when the storm plowed through his community.
"We had no power, no radio, no television. I couldn't pick up the telephone and call anybody from our house phone," Lanham said. "I'm just glad I had a cell phone that I was able to get communication with."
For Lanham and others in his community the St. Albans Police Department's Facebook page became their primary source of local emergency information.
"It gave me interaction with the city and with the outside world where otherwise I would have been sitting here in the dark wondering what was going on," Lanham explained.
Kanawha County leaders also turned to social media to distribute information about everything from cooling stations to places to drop off spoiled food.
"As I would put out a news release other staff members who deal with our Facebook page and Twitter page, they would immediately post the media release on there so that people could constantly get information on what to do and what was going on," said Kanawha County Manager Jennifer Sayre.
Sayre said Kanawha County's Twitter followers increased significantly in the days following the storm. Their website also had far more hits than usual.
"Two years ago we wouldn't have had the phone technology here to be able to get online and find out things that we wanted to," said St. Albans resident Rhonda Pauley, who is a regular on the St. Albans Police Department's Facebook page. "I think everybody should get in on this."
As things started getting back to normal area police departments started looking at ways they could better distribute information to the public if something like the June 29 storm would ever happen again.
St. Albans and Nitro Police Departments signed up for a program called Nixle that allows them to send text alerts to a large number of people in a matter of seconds. Those alerts are also instantly posted to Facebook and Twitter. It only takes about 30 seconds for cell phone users to sign up. You can also sign up to receive emails.
"We had a shelter set up. We had food, water and sleeping facilities. But we had no way of getting that information out for a while," explained Nitro's Interim Police Chief Brian Oxley. "A tool like this will allows us to get this information out through all forms of media."
There are a lot of numbers and links you can take advantage of to make certain you and your family are never isolated in the case of an emergency.
If you want to receive alerts from the St.Albans Police Department text SAPOLICE to the number 888777 to begin the activation procedure.
To receive alerts from the Nitro Police Department text nitrowvpd to 888777 to sign up
If you live in Jackson County the Ravenswood Police Department is also offering text alerts. To sign up to receive alerts from there text 26164 to 888777.
To receive emergency calls and alerts from Kanawha County just follow the link. You can also follow the links to "like" the Facebook pages mentioned in this story.
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