Social Network Sites and Emergency Response Team

On September ninth this year a large explosion occurred in San Bruno California. A brush forest fire crossed the path of natural gas line causing a major explosion. While the fire department and other services responded quickly there was a lapse in time where there was a lack of information. Craig Fugate, the director of FEMA, used Twitter to determine the hardest hit areas first. He used the first hand accounts of what was happening and the hardest hit areas to determine where to send aid first. He is on the cutting edge of using social networking to respond to emergencies. Many times emergency response crews rely on information given to them by the public to respond to an emergency. This information comes from what the operator can divulge from the caller. However, in today’s world where there is a plethora of information available on the Internet and social networking sites, the government isn’t using all its resources properly.

Often the government views information that it doesn’t acquire for itself, as unreliable. Due to this it often takes crucial time to collect data on the extent of damages or the worst effected areas in this case. Many times much of this information can be found on social networking site, open to the public to see. With the information up to date on these website, and be updated almost instantly as it happens, this is a great untapped resource that first responders have a their disposal.

Government officials can use Mr. Fugate as an example to learn by. He used this twitter account to find out crucial information of the affected areas. While many government agencies are more concerned with regulation of these websites than the value they serve to them. If the government can harness the information in timely manner from these websites they will be able to get first hand accounts on what is going on at the scene immediately. Up until a few years ago, emergency response crews relied solely on the information that was given to them the person reporting the incident and then the information gather by the first people responding to it. With today’s technological advances and internet available anywhere, emergency crews can get the critical information they need quicker if they utilize the social networking sites available to them. Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr can be used to gather information on the incident with a few simple clicks in a matter of seconds where normally it would take several minutes until a first responding crew arrives. Using this time efficiently can keep a relatively small incident such as this explosion from becoming a citywide inferno quickly. Information such as this is critical when it comes to fire response because the first few minutes are critical to the growth and expansion of a fire.

With governments expanded use of technology for information it utterly illogical for them to ignore possible the most update source of technology. By utilizing the social networks and all the information available, they can make the most informed decision of distribution of supplies. Hopefully using Craig Fugate as an example government will one day expand their information system to take advantage of sites such as Twitter to make their split second decisions more accurately.

Article Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/09/22/natural.disasters.social.media/index.html

William Neubauer