PAGASA announces Twitter account for hourly storm updates

UPDATED 1:30pm, 16Oct2010 The storm will be tweeted. The state weather authorities announced on Friday that they will be using social media to alert the public about weather disturbances and updates. The first tweet under user name @dost_pagasa provides a link to its advisory on the approaching Tropical Storm "Megi":

The first Tweet from PAGASA's official Twitter account, sent around 12:50pm in the Philippines. GMANews.TV

At a press conference on Friday, Science and Technology Undersecretary Graciano Yumul, also the officer-in-charge of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Administration (PAGASA), said the national weather agency set up the Twitter account in preparation for any disaster emergencies. As of 1:30pm on Saturday, just over 24 hours since its launch, the account has grown to over 6,000 followers and has managed to Tweet hourly updates and even to respond to individual inquiries from the public concerning Tropical Storm "Megi", which entered the Philippine area of responsibility early Saturday morning and was given the local designation "Juan". "Since August pa namin pinag-uusapan ang pag-put up ng official PAGASA Twitter account (We've been talking about putting up an official PAGASA Twitter account since August)," Yumul told GMANews.TV via SMS in a follow-up inquiry. Although Yumul declined to say why it took the agency some time to set up the account, he assured that PAGASA is looking at staffing assignments to ensure that the Twitter account is monitored and updated as necessary around the clock. Competing Twitter usernames such as @pagasaweather and @pagasadost have already been taken down and no longer exist, according to Twitter.com, helping to avoid confusion. Megi is still anticipated to make landfall over the province of Cagayan or Isabela by Tuesday morning, according to PAGASA. At its worst, the storm is expected to bring strong rains similar to those experienced during Ondoy last year. - HS, GMANews.TV