THUNDER BAY – “Our crews responded to 187 calls last night,” states Mayor Keith Hobbs. Over the Victoria Day holiday, or ‘Rain Day’ the City had a full court press going on to keep atop of a long run of potential problems. “The Sewage plant performed well thank goodness,” adds Hobbs.
Tired but Relieved – Mayor Hobbs
The Mayor didn’t get a lot of sleep over the weekend, either did senior City Managers. Darrel Matson ran a marathon thirty hour session keeping ahead of the ongoing situation.
Through the weekend, Thunder Bay Police, Thunder Bay Fire Rescue, and Public Works were kept busy.
The City has also reached out to our neighbour Fort William First Nation offering help and assistance.
“We averted one last night,” commenting on how there was less rain than expected adds the Mayor.
Online on Facebook, the City was able to use social media to keep residents up on what was happening.
Thunder Bay is a Social City
There is a serious paradigm shift happening in Thunder Bay – social media, technology and smart phones along with Ipads and Tablet Computers are impacting how people receive information.
Over the course of Victoria Day, on NetNewsledger forty three percent of the visitors on NetNewsLedger were using a Smartphone or portable device. Almost 5000 individuals were on their Iphones to access up-to-date information on NetNewsLedger.
Facebook Shares of NetNewsledger news articles reached out far past the city limits. Some of the articles published on Monday were shared on Facebook over 4000 times. If each of those shares were by a person with one hundred friends on Facebook the reach is fairly massive.
There are 70,000 people on Facebook who list Thunder Bay as their home. That impact is still something that few people fully seem to be grasping. On days when news and information is critical for people, days like Victoria Day, when information has to travel at the speed of the Internet that is a key dynamic.
In any emergency it is a critical to have fast and accurate information. On Monday it was a team effort, with you, our readers helping with updates, sharing images, and helping keep the information flowing that helps make a real difference.
Our city appears, for the most part to have avoided the worst of last night’s forecast rain. We are fortunate, but there is a real effort needed to recover from the storm.
Working together and keeping a positive attitude is going to be critical for that effort.
James Murray
Current River Dam – Courtesy of Day Vid Z
News at the Speed of the Internet ©
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