As winds are blowing at over 200 mph towards Mexico’s Pacific coast, Hurricane Patricia is being projected as the “strongest hurricane ever recorded.” Not only is the storm brewing as it makes its way towards landfall, but it is also gaining headway in the digital communication and social media world. With communication mediums including e-mail, Twitter, Instagram and their website, just SMU alone has both notified and warned the community of the severe weather conditions approaching.

In addition, the SMU community has contributed to the frenzy of weather updates through personal communication methods such as Snapchats, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts. Cars floating along the Boulevard and Cox Business library being flooded are just some of the posts that have been circulating around campus, greatly contributing to the panic and fear of what is yet to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a result, rather than focusing attention on the effects that Hurricane Patricia is having on its actual victims, social media is highlighting only the backlash effects that Dallas is experiencing. Although in this case social media is being beneficially utilized to get the word out about potential weather risks locally, equal media attention is not being given to where the storm is expected to devastate and destroy the lives of hundreds.