When news of impending flooding first trickled in over news reports, web developer Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web, LLC didn’t get his shovel and start sand-bagging, he went to his computer and started blogging.
Minutes later, iowaflood.com was born.
Hours later, it had teen angst - as over 15,000 people visited the site within 24 hours, and over 30,000 different people logged into the site within 24 hours, causing Brudtkuhl to have to change where the site was hosted due to the increased number of visitors.
News of the site was communicated to other bloggers and even The Des Moines Register through a computer service called Twitter, which allows users to send short messages to other users who subscribe to another person’s updates. Soon, stories, photos, videos and updates were appearing on the iowaflood.com web site automatically thanks to new technologies available on the Internet.
As the week continued, the front page of the site changed often, with requests for help sand-bagging appearing first on the page, followed by the most recent photos from the Iowa City flooding and notices of what bridges are underwater throughout the state.
Local residents aren’t the only ones tuning in to the new web site, either. Brudtkuhl says he has done an interview for WNYC, a New York City public radio station about the web site and flooding in Des Moines. There is no accurate way of telling how many radio and television stations are currently monitoring the site for news, since anybody can subscribe to the site’s news feed and be automatically notified of new photos and videos.
As threats of more flooding continue in Des Moines and around the state, the web site will continue to automatically update with the latest information, almost by itself. For the most up-to-date “Floods of 08″ coverage, you will be hard-pressed to find a better source than iowaflood.com.
[tags]Iowa flood, #iowaflood, social networking, twitter, flooding[/tags]
