Comprehensive Analyses of Twitter for Hurricane Irma

Abstract

This study sheds new light on the sentiment analysis of Twitter for Hurricane Irma with respect to the US states and different periods based on comprehensive analyses. This study finds that tweets are highly related to Florida since the state is the most damaged state with respect to Hurricane Irma. This study also finds that people in other regions posted numerous tweets regarding praying for the people who are damaged by the hurricane and trying to assist in some disaster relief. Next, this study shows that the proportion of tweets is differentiated by periods and regions. In the pre-hurricane period, tweets are heavily concentrated in the South region. In the hurricane period, tweets are highly located in the Southeast and the Northeast regions. In the post-hurricane period, tweets are more posted in the Northeast region. Lastly, this study highlights that people upload numerous tweets including keywords related to regions, such as “Florida”, “Miami”, and keywords related to the hurricane, such as “safe”, “prepare”, and “evacuate”. People are also highly interested in the US president’s action to cope with the Hurricane Irma.