There were well over 3.5 million tweets last night about the superstorm that hit the East Coast. And that only counts those that included the hashtag #sandy or #hurricanesandy. (Via Topsy)

Via Gizmodo.

Tracked tweets peaked around the time seawater began entering subway tunnels under the East River. But volume continued strong into the wee hours and overnight. Undoubtedly there were a million plus other tweets about the storm that didn’t include hashtags and didn’t get tracked.

The photos people shared were sad, and stunning and horrifying. But they helped us all understand what was happening. According to Associated Press, Instagram’s CEO said that about 10 pictures per second were being uploaded to Instagram with the hashtag #sandy.

I know I was glued to the computer Monday night. Reading everything I could find about how the East Coast was faring. At the same time I was watching CNN. Over and over again, I would read something on Twitter or see a photo and minutes later the news would pick it up – including the misinformation about water in the Stock Exchange. Although, the information was not always accurate and several fake (photo-shopped) images made the rounds, much of what was shared or reported via Twitter was found to be true and gave both East Coast residents and the world a snapshot of the winds, the flooding and the power outages in real time.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the storm. If you want to help those affected by hurricane Sandy, visit the site set up by the Red Cross, call 1-800-RED-CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.