Mi Vida

The Quake and Tsunami

At 2:46 PM local time an 8.9 offshore earthquake struck Japan. Minutes later the earthquake unleashed a 23-foot tsunami along Japan’s northeastern coast. The earthquake unfolded to be the fifth-largest earthquake the world has seen since it began recording magnitudes in 1900.

Initially the death toll was reported at 2,000 but officials have confirmed they anticipate the toll to reach nearly 10,000. As the disorder and chaos runs rampant throughout Japan, social media has provided the world a simplistic alternative to offering its support and aid to the victims of this catastrophe.

Social Media Relief

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have teamed up with the Red Cross in creating a Causes campaign which hoped to raise at least $25,000. As of now, the campaign has collected $86,500.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs and the people at iTunes have conceived a similiar effort in which iTunes has placed an image on its home page, linking consumers to a donations page. Donation options range from $5 to $200 and are directly sent to the Red Cross.

Aside from donations, Google has also created a person-finder site, in which individuals can add to a listing of missing names or list information of a found person, as well.

Here is a limited list of numbers you can text to donate:

• American Red Cross: text REDCROSS to 90999
• Convoy of Hope: text TSUNAMI or SUNAMI to 50555
• Mercy Corps: text MERCY to 25383
• Salvation Army: text JAPAN to 80888

• ADRA Relief: text SUPPORT to 85944

With a vast number of social media venues utilizing their technological advances, the disaster in Japan may be terrible and costly, but there’s no denying a humanitarian effort has been set forth with social media at the helm.