Data from: Performance of social network sensors during Hurricane Sandy

Information flow during catastrophic events is a critical aspect of
disaster management. Modern communication platforms, in particular online
social networks, provide an opportunity to study such flow and derive
early-warning sensors, thus improving emergency preparedness and response.
Performance of the social networks sensor method, based on topological and
behavioral properties derived from the “friendship paradox”, is studied
here for over 50 million Twitter messages posted before, during, and after
Hurricane Sandy. We find that differences in users’ network centrality
effectively translate into moderate awareness advantage (up to 26 hours);
and that geo-location of users within or outside of the hurricane-affected
area plays a significant role in determining the scale of such an
advantage. Emotional response appears to be universal regardless of the
position in the network topology, and displays characteristic, easily
detectable patterns, opening a possibility to implement a simple
“sentiment sensing” technique that can detect and locate disasters.