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Novascotiawebcams.com has about 50 cams pointed at various spots throughout Nova Scotia, capturing daily life, whether it’s a lobster trap, Peggy’s Cove or Halifax harbour. But what happens when a disaster strikes and a cam is there for all to see?
That's a thought that ran through Donna Hatt's mind on Remembrance Day when she found out White Point Beach Resort's main lodge was on fire. She's the marketing director at the popular destination on the south shore and also manages the resort’s social media activity.
She spoke at Podcamp Halifax recently and shared her experience around managing a disaster in the digital age, which is something we can certainly relate to at the Red Cross.
White Point Beach Resort prior to the fire.
As news of the fire quickly spread through social media, Donna Hatt rushed to the scene. Although the webcam that’s permanently pointed on White Point Beach actually stopped working due to the fire, more than a dozen videos of the blaze soon popped up on YouTube, drawing 25,000+ views, not to mention hundreds of Facebook posts, tweets and an equally overwhelming offline response from the media and community.
People who had never travelled to Nova Scotia were tweeting about the fire, past guests posted family pictures from White Point Beach on Facebook and supporters shared updated information and defended the resort against any criticism. The disaster actually served to rally a community around the resort, with several projects underway. White Point Beach went so far as to ask the public to submit their ideas on what the new building should look like.
The debris has now been removed and a new construction cam is live so people can follow the process of rebuilding the lodge at White Point Beach.
As we’ve seen in recent disasters and as Donna Hatt experienced, this new era of citizen journalism means information, images and videos can quickly reach a large audience, impacting the way we respond to disasters.