Disaster Emergency Web Site
More Articles Related to EditorialEveryone should have a personal emergency disaster plan in place for the survival of self and loved ones. Here is an idea for an interactive disaster emergency web site based on the highly successful social networking method.
Social networking sites like MySpace, YouTube and even Craigslist can be excellent sources of real-time information during local emergencies and large scale disasters. When a major disaster strikes, you can bet users have posted information and begun discussions all over the social networking websites within seconds.
But wouldn't it be better to have a dedicated website created specifically for disaster emergencies? A centralized social network allowing residents to report disasters, request assistance, and keep up to date on emergency and relief information seems to be an excellent idea.
When disaster strikes a community, the typical first response is to dial 911 for emergency services. However there are problems with this. Major disasters can leave call centers overwhelmed. Lack of immediate and timely information on the status of the disaster can cause people to make the wrong decisions. Friends and relatives may not be able to contact loved ones or learn of their status for days or even weeks.
A million eyeballs see everything, and a disaster emergency website based on social networking would prove to be the most timely and usable information source for both the public and the authorities.
For example, in the event of a major earthquake the phone lines are likely to be completely jammed with calls. It will be difficult for victims to contact emergency services, learn the status and extent of the disaster, and be advised of the best course of action. Emergency services will initially be overwhelmed and uninformed. They will not have a clear picture of the overall nature and extent of the disaster or where they can best apply their energies.
People inside the disaster zone will be seeking minute by minute information on what to do, possible escape routes that remain open, and dangers local to themselves. Those outside the disaster will want to know the status of those inside the effected area.
This is where a web-based emergency site comes in. Based on social networking much like MySpace and YouTube, people would use the internet or cell phones to obtain, report, and discuss the latest information on the disaster as they experience it first hand. Radio and television could tap into this information source and aid in its dissemination.
Maps using Google earth and satellite imagery would pinpoint the locations of citizen input. When combined with Geographic Information Systems technology, these maps would prove invaluable for real time emergency information.
What would make this system so powerful is its social networking aspect. With real-time, many-to-many exchange of information, the emergency website would contain everything from citizen observations of local problems to pictures and video clips taken of the effected area. Friends and relatives would be able to exchange messages, emergency personnel would find out where and what the problems are right down to the local street and neighborhood levels, and therefore know where to best put their efforts.
If the information gained from the actual disaster participants is organized, it will be invaluable for decision makers and emergency personnel. A million eyeballs see everything, and a disaster emergency website based on social networking would prove to be the most timely and usable information source for both the public and the authorities.
A Government Disaster Website
Rather than just go ahead and make the disaster emergency website, big government and academia are busy in committee. They claim the site will take up to five years to create!
It is true the United States has the Department of Homeland Security Information Network and Europe has the Emergency Response Grid. However these sites are centralized, and geared toward professionals and not the everyday citizen.
There is some talk of the government making a 911.gov type website based on Social Networking. I do not believe this is a good idea in light of what we know about bumbling big government and its poor track record in helping its own citizens during disaster emergencies. What is needed is a public disaster emergency website that is fluid and responsive, rather than rely upon the typically mismanaged bureaucracy of governmental efforts (remember the exceedingly poor Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency response during the huricane Katrina disaster?).
The new emergency disaster website need not cost a fortune or take an inordinate amount of time to implement. Talk on the internet of the government and academia making an emergency website mentions costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars! Some complain of the raise in taxes such a site would require when in fact if done privately an emergency website of this caliber would generate plenty of self-sustaining profit and cost tax payers nothing.
Rather than just go ahead and make the disaster website, big government and academia are busy in committee applying for grants and give a thee to five year time frame before an actual fully-functioning disaster emergency web site is up!
Ridiculous cost and time to implementation of the projected government emergency disaster website speaks volumes about how poorly this site would perform once it is finally produced.
Ridiculous cost and time to implementation of the projected government emergency disaster website speaks volumes about how poorly this site would perform once it is finally produced. Typically, big government would make the disaster emergency website confusing and difficult to use. With a long learning curve you can bet the average citizen would be dissuaded from even using it. Timely changes and additions to the website will be lost to committee and approval.
In contrast, websites like Craigslist were often created on shoestring budgets by only a handful of people. The most successful websites are constructed in a very simple and easy to use manner. The very nature of a public emergency services website would dictate that it too must be very simple to use by a variety of people with differing backgrounds and abilities.
Here be opportunity. What do you think?
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Monroe,LA
I agree we could use a survival website. But I disagree with the statement "remember the exceedingly poor Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency response during the huricane Katrina disaster". It was not FEMA's fault. I totally inept Democratic governor and mayor of New Orleans prevented FEMA from helping. The governor is gone, but the fools in New Orleans re-elcted the mayor.