The eastern seaboard of the United States is home to some of the largest news and media centers in the world. What happens when a catastrophic event such as superstorm Sandy occurs? Those media hubs find themselves in the same predicament as the millions of citizens and businesses all along the affected area. Some TV news stations such as CNN and MSNBC have been able to remain on the air, but their mobility is limited, and depends on reporters who must brave very difficult conditions in order to report their stories.

“Radio stations, one of the most reliable sources of information for people without power, were also impeded by flooding on Monday. Two news radio stations, WNYC and WINS, lost their AM frequencies but continued to broadcast on FM. WNYC’s transmitter “is in a swamp, and it’s flooded,” said Laura R. Walker, the chief executive of New York Public Radio, which operates the station.”

We know from past international events, such as the flooding in Pakistan and the earthquake and tsunamai in Japan, that SlideShare community members express their concern and support, as well as their expertise and knowledge, in order to help those affected by these events.

The social sharing via the SlideShare community provides a crowd-sourced curation of images, uploaded as slideshows and shared with the world. In a matter of hours after the storm hit Florida we started to see these slideshows appearing on the “popular” section of our search results.

We anticipate many more slidedecks will be added and shared, especially as data and analysis of the storm’s long-term effects becomes known. We’ll be sure to share these findings with you, and encourage you to share them as embedded slideshows on your own blogs and websites.