Ana. Bill. Danny.

These innocent-sounding names take on new meaning as the monikers of some of this year’s hurricanes. Today, thanks to broadband-powered social media sites, staying up to speed on the latest information is easier than ever.

How can residents living in hard-hit hurricane areas remain connected and responsive to changing weather conditions?

Here are a few ways social media can help:

• Websites such as Emicus.com provide hurricane and disaster-relief-specific social networking opportunities. Through these platforms, communities can share real-time information, access news and weather reports, and even use the service’s texting capability to let networks of friends and family members know they are safe.

• Twitter, blogging, and email can be used to not only encourage federal, state, and local officials to have detailed hurricane preparedness plans in place, but also to communicate essential news and information. Twitter has also been used by fire departments and other emergency response professionals to share up-to-the-minute information for a more tightly coordinated response.

• Along the lines of GPS devices, new apps are under development that will enable smartphones to track hurricanes, but already there are some storm-related options. For those with iPhones, Weather Underground recently released a mobile version of their site that includes a tropical storm tracker. The app “Tracking the Eye” allows users to pull up everything from public advisories to satellite photos, and “Hurricane Ready” shares information on hurricane history and water levels, among other things.

Whether confirming the safety of your friends on Facebook or finding a wealth of information online, broadband’s social networking capabilities are becoming increasingly important to our emergency response communications.

Also posted on the USTelecom blog.

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