AP EXCLUSIVE: Aquino confident in typhoon response (AP)

TOKYO – Philippine President Benigno Aquino III says he's confident that disaster management authorities in his country are adequately responding to flooding from a typhoon that has submerged entire sections of metropolitan Manila.

Aquino says he believes that power will be restored to most of the Philippine capital by Tuesday afternoon.

Aquino was in Japan for a four-day state visit.

At least seven people have been killed by Typhoon Nesat, the worst storm to hit the Asian nation since a 2009 cyclone killed nearly 500 people.

Aquino told The Associated Press that "it's a fact of life" that the country is visited by 23 typhoons every year on average.

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Facebook to the Rescue! How Social Media is Changing Disaster Response (Time.com)

Alycia Williamson-Smith and her family didn't have anywhere else to turn. It had been days since a devastating tornado ravaged Joplin, Mo., home to her second cousin James Williamson. With cell-phone service largely unavailable and a distance of several thousand miles between her house in Amsterdam, N.Y., and Joplin, Williamson-Smith posted photos of James on several Facebook pages that were created in the aftermath of the tornado. Less than 24 hours later, she saw a comment on a page called "Joplin Tornado Citizen Checks" that said James had been found and was volunteering with search-and-rescue teams. "Even though at that point we hadn't spoken to him directly, it was comforting to know that someone out there had seen him and that he was O.K.," says Williamson-Smith.

Two weeks after the storm, that Facebook page had about 6,500 "likes" and was still growing every day. Stories of joyful reunions mixed with those mourning the loss of loved ones, along with messages about supplies, prayers and support. The page was one of dozens that sprouted in the immediate aftermath, quickly becoming the fastest way to get information, as survivors and their relatives relied on social media as they might once have leaned on the Red Cross or local relief agencies. "The biggest part of using social media during a disaster is that it's not about the government helping the public; it's about the public helping themselves," says Kim Stephens, a senior associate at ABT Associates and an emergency-management expert. "Before, you were left trying to find out how to get what you need, and now the desire and need is matched quickly and easily. It's peer-to-peer aid." (See "For Joplin, Nothing Is Certain in Tornado's Wake.")

Halfway around the world in Japan, social media was a primary source of communication following the earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11. However, unlike the situation in Joplin, citizens were using networks like Twitter, Facebook and Mixi (a Japan-specific social site) to send warnings, ask for help and relay bits of information from the scene as well as to announce that they were safe. According to Mashable, only an hour after the earthquake, more than 1,200 tweets per minute were being sent from Tokyo. Hashtags like #prayforjapan, #earthquake and #tsunami trended almost instantly, and were being tweeted thousands of times per second by people all over the globe, according to Poynter. And not surprisingly, Twitter reported both a record number of tweets the day of the quake (177 million) and accounts added one day after (572,000, as opposed to the daily average of 460,000).

Jesse Green, executive director of the Tokyo office for p.r. firm Hill & Knowlton, was in Beijing when the earthquake hit Japan. He used Facebook and Twitter to connect with his family, friends and co-workers as well as to receive updates on the situation. "[Social media] helped to an extent I would never have previously imagined," Green says. "Many of my friends, my wife included, joined Twitter just to keep up with all the breaking news and be part of the conversation where possible. While the broadcast media gave their global audience an understanding of what was taking place, social media provided the underlying picture - especially useful for those of us living in Japan, where the top-line details simply weren't enough." (See "Japan Quake Survivor Walks 20 Hours to Find Girlfriend.")

While conventional telephone lines often go down or become overwhelmed during a disaster, Internet connections often remain active and usable. "People can get out texts or tweets way easier than they can get out a phone call, and that's something [emergency managers] don't plan for," Stephens says. "Most of the planning is based on the assumption that there will be no communications in the impacted area. That's become a false assumption. Now we know that there are communications."

With that in mind, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have all implemented social strategies into their emergency-management plans. In April, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would revise its terrorism-advisory system, including a provision that alerts would be sent out over social networks "when appropriate." Shortly thereafter, FEMA and the FCC, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, unveiled PLAN (Personalized Localized Alert Network), the nation's first geographically targeted emergency-notification system, which sends free emergency alerts to enabled mobile devices to warn citizens of "imminent threats" in their area. This service is expected to roll out in New York City by the end of the year.

Of course, as with anything on the Web, social media has a tendency to breed rumors and inaccuracies that could hurt recovery efforts. And as Amanda Ripley, a TIME contributor and author of the book The Unthinkable: Who Survives in Disasters and Why, points out, during disasters, people have a tendency to move slowly or shut down completely as a protective measure. "Anything that exacerbates that tendency - texting, taking pictures, tweeting - can be dangerous," she says.

It's true that social media is often thought of as nothing more than a distraction, or an attempt to replace a real community with a virtual one. But when faced with a disaster like in Joplin or Japan, these networks become a lot more. "I think that citizens communicating with other citizens, well, that's kind of the definition of resilience," Stephens says.

See pictures of the wreckage in Joplin by photojournalist Edward Keating.

See TIME's photo-essay "The Calamity of Japan's 9.0-Magnitude Quake."

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Obama vows national response to Missouri tornado (Reuters)

JOPLIN, Missouri (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised victims of the deadliest U.S. tornado in 65 years that the federal government would help them rebuild, saying on Sunday it was a national tragedy.

"The cameras may leave. The spotlight may shift," he told a memorial service for the 139 known victims of the May 22 twister. But the federal government "will be with you every step of the way until Joplin is restored and this community is back on its feet," Obama said to a standing ovation from survivors.

Before the service in an auditorium at Missouri Southern State University, Obama rolled up his sleeves and toured a disaster scene where crushed cars, piles of wood, clothing and a broken dishwasher lay helter-skelter amid the debris on lots where houses once stood.

The president, who returned on Saturday night from a six-day trip to Europe, vowed to cut through any federal red tape to help with rebuilding that he predicted would be "a tough, long slog."

"This is just not your tragedy," he said after meeting survivors. "This is a national tragedy and that means there's going to be a national response."

The tornado was the deadliest single twister in the United States since 1947. In addition to the at least 139 people killed and more than 900 injured, scores are still unaccounted for a week later.

The tornado churned through a stretch nearly a mile wide, damaging about 8,000 buildings in Joplin, a city of 50,000 in southwestern Missouri.

Standing amid the rubble under a scorching sun, Obama told reporters that he had heard some "harrowing stories" as well as some miraculous ones.

He said he had spoken with an 85-year-old man, Hugh Hills, who had just taken a chicken pot pie out of the oven when the storm was approaching.

"He went into the closet and came out without a scratch," Obama said. Hills, before meeting the president, stood outside his mostly destroyed house holding a large American flag on a pole, his family around him.

"These are just things," a woman nearby said, pointing to the debris and the house. "We're just glad Grandpa made it."

The president got a bird's eye view of the damage from his plane before landing. He was accompanied on the tour by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, both fellow Democrats.

"As president, I can promise you your country will be with you every single step of the way," Obama said at the memorial service. He said he had made the same commitment to other communities devastated by tornadoes in recent weeks and months, including Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Sandra Maler and Bill Trott) .

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