Natural disasters are chaotic for communities and the newsrooms who serve them. Community members find themselves in need of basic, immediate information, including how to get in touch with loved ones who may also be caught up in the disaster. It is a confusing, frightening experience – one in which people could use the clarity and direction that comes from good public service journalism. 

When the South Fork and Salt fires in New Mexico’s Ruidoso area blazed through about 25,000 acres in June 2024 – destroying more than 1,100 homes – public radio station KUNM heard from a media partner that community members desperately needed help checking on loved ones. KUNM stepped up with a hotline, which news director Megan Kamerick monitored and updated regularly to get people the information they needed. Kamerick told America Amplified about KUNM’s work, how they did it, and what it meant to the people who relied on the hotline in the midst of crisis. 

Tell us about your engagement initiative or project?

During a wildfire, an outlet with whom we collaborate – Source New Mexico – suggested setting up a hotline. Cell towers were down and their reporters, who were on the ground in Southern New Mexico, said people were having trouble connecting with friends and relatives in the area to see if they were safe. We set up a Google Voice number and also used our SpeakPipe application and put that all in a web post with basic information on shelters, emergency numbers, fire updates, etc. We put the Google Voice number in there and embedded the SpeakPipe, which allows people to click a button and leave a recorded voice message right there on the web page. Then we pushed out the post. Source New Mexico, did the same on their socials.

That was Tuesday, a day or two after the fire broke out. I spent all day on Wednesday, June 19,  listening to the voice messages. I transcribed them or used the Google transcription and added those messages to the web post with phone numbers people had left for relatives to contact them. I also responded to all the messages via text, which I could do with Google Voice very easily, to give people resource numbers to call and to express sympathy and let them know I was adding this to our public web post.

That afternoon I scrapped our plans for our live call-in show the next morning and refocused it on the fires. My producer and I wrangled the Ruidoso mayor, the state Homeland Security emergency response person, and three journalists who were on the ground covering the fires. I also played the messages people had left looking for loved ones, which was quite moving.

Throughout the rest of the week I continued checking in with everyone who had left messages to see if they had found their folks. When they had, I updated the web post and took their phone numbers off.

Source New Mexico contacted one of the people and did a long story on her quest to find her father and make sure he was safe.

What was the main objective of this engagement initiative?

To help connect people to resources and to their loved ones. It also helped our collaborator, Source New Mexico, who had reporters on the ground in southern New Mexico, to find people and tell their stories.

How did the collaboration between America Amplified and your public media station help shape this initiative?

It has really made me think more deeply about engagement and ways we can try and work that into our ongoing processes. And it has also shown me that engagement can take many, many different forms.

How did you build trust in the community you were reporting on?

What's interesting is that the area where the fires broke out is actually outside our broadcast area. However, I heard several times from people who called in that they really appreciated what we were doing. Here are a few messages:

• Sherry: May I have an address where I can send a letter regarding the amazing care I feel I have received from you during this time? I believe those in charge should know how quickly and caring your response to family members you are 🌹

• Angel Aguirre Jr: Thank you very much. I appreciate you and this site you have to help victims plus loved ones to find their loved ones that have been struck with tragedy or some sort of nature's natural causes ... Without you it would make things so hard for people but because of you and this site I was personally going out of my mind not knowing what I do then I get a message with numbers and sites where I can search and thanks to you i have talked to my parents and they told me they are safe .... Thank You very much

• Brian: I appreciate the work you are doing amidst the catastrophe

In one instance a woman named Ellen was trying to reach her friends who ran a B&B and couldn't find out anything about the property. I started googling the name and found a video on Facebook where someone was driving through a road in the aftermath of the fire and I sent it to Ellen. She replied with this message:

• Oh Megan thank you for the video. My husband and I saw the gazebo that sits on Betty's property. I am so happy I am in tears. I hope Betty and her son are safe. Thank you again you have been so kind.

What engagement tools shared are helping your station to better engage with this community?

Google Voice, SpeakPipe, and social media.

How are you bringing this reporting back to the community?

We didn't have the capacity to send reporters down to the fires, but we did carry all of Source New Mexico's stories and we did send a reporter specifically to the Mescalero Apache Nation in the wake of the first fire to see how members of our Congressional delegation were responding to needs there. We share content sometimes with public media station KRWG in southern New Mexico, which broadcasts into the area of the fires, and they used some of our fire coverage.

What lessons do you take away from this project in terms of strengthening engagement?

This was very much seat-of-the-pants at the urging of a collaborating outlet. I had to build the plane as I was flying it. But there's nothing like an emergency to make you figure out things quickly. Now I feel like we could use these same tools when the next emergency happens, and engage with people quickly to help them get resources and help us tell their stories.

Anything else you would like to add (tools/initiative ideas) for other stations?

We were really short-staffed when this happened. Also, Juneteenth was a holiday, so I took on most of this work myself. That was not sustainable for the long term, but it did show you can do something like this quickly with very few people. And all the tools I used were free.

FURTHER READING from America Amplified: Assessing and addressing information needs around natural disasters