Social media plays major role during Harvey

Danny Garbarino's son lives in Houston and he says he's been getting constant updates from him about what's going on.

"Every hour, I get updates. The water's coming up. He's gotten 40 inches of rain," says Garbarino.

Social media sites have become hot spots for people wanting to watch Harvey unfold.

"I think social media has changed the entire dynamics of the storm. People are able to get help in a more immediate manner. Everyone knew instantly what was going on," says Lydia Barousse.

"I think the impact of social media compared to previous storms has just compounded thousands of percent," says Ashley Nelson.

Tulane social media expert, Ashley Nelson, says with the increase of both technology and social media, people have discovered how to use it in an emergency situation.

"People are using it for help. I think what's we'll see later on is the actual outpouring of support and the aid will continue," says Nelson.

The Louisiana Cajun Navy is right now in Houston making critical rescues through an APP that people are using to report their location.

"Yeah, it's a game changer. Just think, if we would have had that during Katrina," says Garbarino.

12 years ago, during Hurricane Katrina, victims had no idea about social media.

"The only thing we had was our phones, which actually texting was the only thing we could do once the cell towers were down," says Nelson.

"I eventually relocated to Florida, and I got my first text from my nephew asking if I was ok. I didn't know what that meant. I just pressed 'K' and responded back, so I learned how to text through all of this," says Barousse.

Lydia Barousse says the first communication she had with her own family was 6 days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

"Ya know, you jump forward to Hurricane Isaac, and then all of a sudden twitter was a very popular social media too, and there was some wonder local news sources. If you wanted to know what was going on in a block, you could ask somebody," says Nelson.

Each year, social media became more and more popular.

Today, it's considered an extremely valuable tool to get the word out.

"We actually know what's going on around the world and not just what's going on in our front yard," says Nelson

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