Extreme weather event and vulnerabilities

the communication of a disaster on Twitter

Abstract

We analyze the communication on Twitter of the disaster that occurred int the interior of São Paulo, during Carnival 2023, which killed 65 people and displaced others 2.000. This disaster was result of a combination of extreme weather events and social and environmental vulnerabilities. Within 24 hours, the region of São Sebastião - SP experienced the highest recorded rainfall in the country's measurements history. Methodologically, we examined what three journalistic media and four government institutions published during the week of the crisis, from the alerts leading up to the height of disaster. We analyzed 235 tweets applying a specific analysis protocol to them. We are conceptually affiliated with a social and historical perspective, drawing on disaster studies and with the contributions of Disaster Risk Communication, Crisis Communication, and the Public Problem Attention Cycle. We consider Twitter as reflecting its own network dynamics, but also serving as a space for social discursive contests, potentially functioning as an early warning system. Considering the messages from government institutions, citizens were primarily provided with technical warnings and left to make their own decisions. The media's tweets focused on intensive coverage during the epicenter of the event, with little emphasis on alerts or action protocols, lacking coordination and often disconnected from the region's problems.