A Lack of Information Will Be Filled by Someone

I recently did a presentation to a city council on crisis communications. One of my points that I made was that even when you have no new information, repeat what you have already said. Don't leave people hanging with nothing.

Then today I read this T.S. Eliot quote, "When we do not know, or when we do not know enough, we tend always to substitute emotions for thoughts." This coming from a book on weaponization of social media. The authors point out that the emotion that is the most frequent and powerful is anger. 

Today in disaster response you need to be fully engaged on social media. You can't let people hanging with no information. Someone will fill that void with information or emotions that will sway many to their point of view, even if it is totally fabricated out of their own mind.

You cannot over-communicate in a disaster!