First, a warning: Today’s post will have little to do with employment law, but once you read it, I hope you can understand the significance of it.

The people of Connecticut have suffered (and are continuing to suffer) greatly from Hurricane (and Tropical Storm) Irene.  She left over HALF of the Connecticut Light & Power customers without power in the state. That’s a huge inconvenience. And the flooding on many of the rivers is expected to be terrible.

But as bad as things have been here, things are even worse in Vermont where a terrible flash flood situation occurred yesterday.

Around midday yesterday, I received a call from my brother who had stayed up there (thinking he was avoiding Irene’s effects in New York).  They had to abandon the house that they were staying out due to flooding.

They went into Ludlow, Vermont thinking they’d be safe & dry there. He took the following video there:

 

He sent it to me around 2 p.m. and I decided to post it on YouTube.  I sent a tweet out about it too to people like Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel and Matt Noyes of NECN.

The rest is a story about the power of social media — particularly in a disaster.  Long story short, the video appeared on CNN, NECN, ABC to name a few.  In just 18 hours, it was watched by over 30,000 people.

Through that video, I was able to tweet with others in the area, share information and get the word out about the situation in town.   Heck, even Al Roker tweeted about Ludlow, VT.

As of this morning, my brother is safe. The water has receded in town leaving big damage to Ludlow (which is right at Okemo Mountain) and to the surrounding lakes (Lake Rescue and Lake Pauline, for those who know the area).  Most roads are washed out in and out of Ludlow and the town’s only grocery store was flooded too.

The town (and many others in VT) will need our help — even more than we need in Connecticut.  But through the power of social media, at least we can know about their stories and respond appropriately.

Lake Pauline Washout in Ludlow, VT