Natural Disaster Crisis Communication by FEMA and Red Cross Via Twitter During Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Lane, Matthew, and Michael

Abstract

This thesis examined the way disaster relief agencies, FEMA and Red Cross, communicated during natural hazards at the national and regional levels. Using tweets from the weeks of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Lane, Matthew, and Michael, I assessed how well the agencies communicated with the public in the wake of a storm. This research utilized crisis communication theory and disaster management theory. The tweets were coded according to a standard model of crisis communication and analyzed using SPSS software. The results found that FEMA national was the agency that followed the crisis communication model the best, while Red Cross national had the least content in line with the model.