Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Louisiana Governor�s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) employed Twitter to inform and answer constituents' questions. GOHSEP used Twitter�s management tool CoTweet to reply and see responses to tweets, as well as archive its tweets, according to Christina Stephens, director of GOHSEP�s Joint Information Center. Stephens wrote and scheduled tweets to appear in advance in CoTweet, which also showed GOHSEP who retweeted the agency�s information. GOHSEP used Twitter to disseminate information to fishermen about decision-making and fishing closures in the area. For example, a Louisiana man thought taxpayers� funds were being used to clean up the oil spill, so he asked GOHSEP. Stephens found a letter from the governor stating otherwise and provided a link to it in about 15 minutes. �In that situation, what would have happened if we didn�t have Twitter is this blogger would have gotten routed to a PR person � who may or may not have responded,� she said. �They wouldn�t have very easily been able to get the information.� Corey McKenna Staff Writer