Emergency comm.Local towns signing up for Twitter and Facebook for emergency comm.

Following the lead of several other cities and federal agencies, the town of Wilton, Connecticut recently launched a Facebook page and Twitter account to help communicate with residents and share information during a disaster.

Two major storms, including Hurricane Irene, left many Wilton residents without water or electricity for up to a week and sent a strong signal to emergency officials that they needed to improve disaster communications.

To that end, the town created an official Emergency Facebook Page as well as a Twitter account.

Speaking before the Wilton Board of Selectman, Fire Chief Paul Milositz, who is also the town’s emergency response director, said, “We have to get better at [communication with residents].”

“We developed that Facebook page to just start to get our name out there, looking at the ins-and-outs of using that page ….It was started after Hurricane Irene, but was not used during the October storm,” he said.

“We have to go slowly because we’re a municipality, and not an individual person,” explained Milositz. “We’ve posted notifications around town…but if people want to get their information [through social media] then we need to do that too.”

Emergency officials are still new to the communications platform and are working to get up to speed on how to effectively use Twitter and Facebook to communicate.

Milositz, who runs both the Facebook and Twitter account, admitted in his first tweet that he is still trying to figure out how to use the program, posting, “I really dont get this tweet thing.”

For now Milositz emphasized that wiltonct.org, the town’s website, would still be the best place to get information. In particular at the top of the page there is a ticker that contains emergency notifications.

The town plans to only use social media platforms during major town-wide emergencies like massive blackouts or in situations where the town requires assistance.