Community and Governmental Responses to an Urban Flash Flood

Fritze Holger, Kray Christian

Zusammenfassung

In summer of 2014 the city of Münster experienced an urban flash flood not seen before with such intensity in Germany. This paper investigates the subsequent governmental and ad-hoc community response actions with a focus on the chro-nologies of Facebook and Twitter usage. Interviews identified drawbacks of coor-dinating volunteers in social media ecosystems. Possible solutions to overcome issues related to the interaction of community and official relief activities are identified.