This event was originally posted on DigitalGov University on January 9, 2018.

Hurricane Maria made landfall on September 20, 2017, devastating Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These events, coupled with hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and wildfires in California, made five simultaneous natural disasters that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would need to address. Within a few weeks, thousands of federal volunteers from across the country were deployed to the Joint Field Office (JFO) in San Juan.

When Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, it caused a total collapse of the traditional communication infrastructure. People on the island turned to radio and social media as a lifeline. Family members on the mainland searched for information they could easily share via text.

To communicate vital, life-saving information, we worked with social media influencers to amplify the messages of subject matter experts from FEMA and the National Weather Service. This helped ensure that critical information reached the people who needed it most.

Some people experience challenges navigating government services -- especially if they need to work with more than one agency. Based on this premise, we set out to find out how agencies could share information with one another to improve the customer experience.

To narrow the scope of our research, we decided to focus on one specific task that touched multiple agencies. So we set out to understand and map the path of a newly naturalized citizen attempting to travel abroad.

In government, the word “marketing” often carries a negative connotation. But whether you call it outreach or communications or marketing, government often has a need to get key information to the public.

Today, government communicators have more channels than ever to try to reach their audiences. On the digital side, there are websites, social media, email newsletters, and blog posts. And there are of course non-digital avenues like public service advertisements, print publications, media relations and direct mailings.

In 2017, it was nearly impossible to turn on the news or go on social media without hearing stories about hurricanes across Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

Because the timing of these storms overlapped, new information was constantly coming out about seeking shelter, volunteer opportunities, and other response and recovery efforts.