Hurricane Harvey was social media's first real stress test as a disaster response and recovery mechanism. A confluence of conditions makes it an ideal case study of social media's role in disaster recovery: the lack of a government-issued evacuation order, a call from government leadership for willing and able volunteers with a boat or high-water vehicle to perform life-saving rescues, and wide-spread adoption of social media platforms in the Houston area. While research on online social networks and disasters continues to grow, social scientists know little about how these online networks transform during a crisis and, further, how they drive disaster outcomes. With two original datasets, this study investigates how Houston's online social network transformed during Hurricane Harvey (2017), and the relationship between social media activity and post-Harvey recovery. The findings of a social network analysis (N= 2,387,610) and subsequent statistical analyses reveal the Houston-area online social network grew denser, clustered, and more efficient during the disaster. A spatial analysis and three separate regression models of activity before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey reveal that among 333 Nextdoor Neighborhoods, hyperlocal social media activity was a statistically significant predictor of the rate of rebuilding in these geographically based online communities. These findings suggest that policy and decision-makers should invest into online and offline hyperlocal social networks well before a disaster strikes, and leverage resources and legislation to maintain and strengthen the telecommunications and energy infrastructure that supports access to social media and telecommunications infrastructure during a time of crisis.

中文翻译：

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哈维飓风过后社交媒体在灾难恢复中的作用

哈维飓风是社交媒体的第一个实际压力测试，它是一种灾难响应和恢复机制。条件的融合使之成为社交媒体在灾难恢复中的作用的理想案例研究：缺乏政府发布的疏散命令，政府领导层呼吁愿意并有能力的志愿者乘船或高水位车辆来执行生活，节省了救援费用，并在休斯顿地区广泛采用了社交媒体平台。尽管对在线社交网络和灾难的研究持续增长，但社会科学家对这些在线网络在危机期间如何转变以及如何驱动灾难后果知之甚少。这项研究使用两个原始数据集，研究了在飓风哈维（2017）期间休斯顿的在线社交网络是如何转变的，以及社交媒体活动与哈维后康复之间的关系。社交网络分析的结果（N = 2,387,6​​10）和随后的统计分析表明，在灾难期间，休斯顿地区在线社交网络变得更加密集，聚集并且效率更高。对哈维飓风之前，之中和之后的活动进行空间分析和三个单独的回归模型，结果表明，在333个隔壁邻居中，超本地社交媒体活动是这些地理上的在线社区重建率的统计显着预测指标。这些发现表明，政策制定者和决策者应该在灾难发生前早点投资在线和离线超本地社交网络，