The frequency and intensity of natural disasters have been increasing significantly over the past decades and this trend is predicted to continue. Natural disasters have a dramatic impact on human lives and on the socio-economic welfare of entire regions. They were identified in 2011 by the World Bank [The World Bank, 2011] as one of the major risks of the East Asia and Pacific region, which re...

People increasingly use social media to get first-hand news and information. During disasters such as Hurricane Sandy and the tsunami in Japan people used social media to report injuries as well as send out their requests. During social movements such as Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the Arab Spring, people extensively used social media to organize their events and spread the news. As more peopl...

Hurricane Sandy was one of the deadliest and costliest of hurricanes over the past few decades. Many states experienced significant power outage, however many people used social media to communicate while having limited or no access to traditional information sources. In this study, we explored the evolution of various communication patterns using machine learning techniques and determined user...