In December 2025, Washington State experienced historic, record-breaking flooding after an atmospheric river hit the area. (Yes, that’s a real thing and no, it’s not the first time we Washingtonians have been hit with it.) Many parts of the state were washed out, evacuated and/or will require long-term recovery efforts. In this article, I’m breaking down social media content I felt used a variety of tactics and strategies to effectively connect with audiences across the state. We’re looking at four topics: storytelling, collaborations, relatability and community.

If you’ve never run a social media account in a government agency, it is not for the faint of heart. The audience is extremely diverse, user habits are vast and reaching everyone is rare (let alone difficult). However, like many other industries and accounts, the armchair quarterbacks and comment sections are alive and well, but not always in the positive way we hope. I will also include examples from local businesses and people, as they pertain to the overall strength of the outcome.

Let’s dive in and learn how this flooding helped agencies to connect, gain trust and deliver messages during a crisis while making an impact.

Storytelling

If you’ve been here even for a little while, you’ve heard me continually say how important storytelling is to your communications strategy, especially on social media. Here are a few examples and why they made such a lasting impression.

Snoqualmie Falls via the City of Snoqualmie – If you’ve ever visited the falls, the views are breathtaking. To see it after an atmospheric river hit the area, most mouths dropped. This is an excellent example of how the City of Snoqualmie decided to show the difference, as sharing video of the falls during a calm day is something they’re used to seeing. Just a quick scroll and viewers are able to compare the difference and understand the impact of the rain.

Green River via SeaTac City Councilmember Joe Vinson – This is a direct comparison of the Green River in September and December of 2025. This three-month difference is obvious and gives viewers a great understanding of the magnitude we’re dealing with. Showing this side-by-side comparison is powerful. It’s also a great reminder how b-roll of video you shoot months ago can come in handy later on. File it away for a rainy day! (Pun intended.)

Storm 2025 highlight via Leavenworth Reindeer Farm – If you’ve been to Leavenworth, you may have heard of the reindeer farm just outside of town. It’s one of our family’s favorite spots to visit when we go, so imagine how big my eyes were as I watched their stories as they posted them happening in real time. If you head to their stories highlights, you’ll see one titled “Storm 2025.” They filmed what was happening while they were on the farm and uploaded them to stories as they went. This is an excellent example of storytelling, as it showed the family’s recovery efforts and they even shared stories other people were posting to gain awareness to the situation.

BINGO card via The Fudge Hut – If you’ve ever visited Leavenworth in December, the street is packed shoulder-to-shoulder no matter the weather. I kid you not. Their winter festivities draw people in for the sights, ambiance and so much fun the town has to offer. The Fudge Hut posted this with an excellent hook that drew you in because it begs the question, “wait, what happened?” If you’re not from around here, you may not know the flooding was happening, nor would you know the entire area around Leavenworth was hit extremely hard. The bonus is they followed it up with this post that showed the week-to-week comparison after power was restored.

Collaborations

Collaborations are one of my favorite ways to work smarter, not harder. This is when you create one piece of content and push it to multiple social media accounts, making it look like you each created the piece yourself. When messages are the same, it’s more efficient to collaborate.

This is not the same as tagging. Tagging will allow viewers to access the tagged account easily in the caption or photo, but it will not show up on both profiles. Adding collaborators to Instagram content quickly reaches a wider audience, giving the piece the opportunity to spread quickly.

Recovery Efforts via City of Renton and Renton Office of Emergency Management – Sharing recovery information isn’t always flashy, but filming on site and keeping the camera moving is important. Giving the audience more than just a “talking head” to listen to can help them visualize and understand the information you are providing for them. Engineer Joe does this well in this example. Bonus: they collaborated with the two accounts, increasing their reach to their community.

Road Closed via Washington State Patrol (WSP) and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) – This is a great opportunity for agencies to collaborate (and while they didn’t use the collaboration feature, they could have to increased reach) because their message was cohesive and each agency had a piece of it. Their message was about people going around the road closed signs, which impacts WSDOT being able to work in the area and WSP enforcing the law. Do not discount or overlook the ability to collaborate, especially when there is more than one message that works together.

Drone footage via City of Snoqualmie and Living Snoqualmie – The city and a local news account collaborated to share the visuals of what was happening in the area. This is a great visual for anyone who lives, works or visits that area to build awareness of what’s happening. When partnering with local agencies that aren’t in government, be sure to vet them thoroughly and decide who aligns best with your goals and mission. This can be a powerful tool when you’re looking to share emergency information quickly, but you certainly don’t want to collaborate with any and every account.

Relatability

Being relatable is what people want to see on social media. They are also there to escape, be entertained and relate with the accounts they follow, while also consuming news. Here are two examples you can do that without sacrificing your brand, authority or relationship with your community.

Language via Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) – If you don’t follow WSDOT yet, you need to. (Go ahead, I’ll wait here.) They are known for being hilarious and educational at the same time. Not every agency can get away with this and trust me, I know and understand that. However, their opening sentence on this caption draws people in: “*deep sigh* We need to talk.” It’s funny, relatable and helps you understand they have something important they want you to know. Don’t be afraid of using relatable language in a professional way because I promise you, it can happen (and be successful.)

Music choice via Snohomish County Fire District 4 – You don’t have to love Credence Clearwater Revival at the same level I do (because I do!), but using “Have Your Ever Seen the Rain” while showing drone footage of a washed out roadway is a great use of social media messaging. It allows them to use storytelling, too. It’s showing their crews at work, the cars stuck in the water and reiterates the dangers of driving in high water. This isn’t victim blaming or shaming; this is education that’s relatable.

Community

I would be terrible at my job if I did not mention community in this article. The community is who we are here to serve, no matter the industry. Community can mean different things to different agencies, whether it’s residents, businesses, customers, visitors, clients, patients, etc. Here are some examples of how the community was showcased, praised and banded together.

Sandbags via City of Mount Vernon – Mount Vernon went to social media to get their messages out, which started with a call for volunteers to remove sandbags so businesses could reopen. They then captured video of the volunteers loading bags onto the truck to show their hard work. What gets me every time is to hear chatter in the background and smiles on their faces. Evacuation notices are never easy, but to see the community band together during and after an event like this is amazing (and deserves to be showcased!)

Updates via Historic Downtown Snohomish – This is a great way to share your messages without talking to the camera. By using clips that align to your message, you can create a voiceover instead which keeps the viewer engaged. The only suggestion I would make if you’re going to try this method is to use closed captions. This helps not only for ADA compliance, but most social media users watch videos with the sound off.

Robert the UPS Guy via Snoqualmie Trading Company – Robert may be my new favorite internet sensation right now because of how he jumped into action. The Snoqualmie Trading Company needed help sandbagging their doors and Robert clearly saw an opportunity to help. This was made into it’s own video after the company shared a video the day before showcasing the community’s support. Robert was called out in the comments section (in a great way.)

The Snohomish Community via Shari Ireton (on LinkedIn) – Shari Ireton with the City of Snohomish shared this message on her LinkedIn account. She explains her experience when she stopped for lunch after working in the field that morning, which is heartwarming and thoughtful. It shows the impact our work has on the community, whether they were directly involved or not.

Final thoughts

The work you do in communications makes a difference. This isn’t to get emotional or mushy about it, but it’s true. Words matter. Photos and videos matter. Connection matters. None of which is possible without sharing the message.

I hope these examples helped you better understand what’s possible when it comes to crisis communication. Emergency messaging doesn’t have to only be evacuation notices and road closures. Those are critical and necessary, but there is more to the story than that.

Be sure to tell it.

Here are a few I recommend for your social media:

• Use closed captions for all videos where someone is talking.
• Use the collaboration feature on Instagram anytime you’re creating one piece of content to share on multiple accounts. Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t work on Facebook. However, you can still create that single video and individually share it to your pages.
• Save b-roll to a folder on your phone to use at a later time. You can organize it by type so it’s easier to find (i.e. landscapes, vehicles, events, etc.)
• Lobby for a small budget to purchase communication equipment, such as a camera, tripod and microphone.
• Don’t be intimidated. Just try.

These examples are just a few wins agencies are having every day on social media. If you want to learn how to build a communications strategy that actually works for you, be sure to check out The Official Voice. This self-paced online program walks you through branding, social media planning and strategy, storytelling and much more. Having a strategy in place will save you time, effort and your sanity.