A crash course in changing the world.
On May 27, 2006, at 6am, an earthquake registered 6.2 on the Richter struck my hometown. The estimated death toll was approaching 6,000 and injured approximately thousands. It also
successfully damaged roughly 160,000
houses. In the south we had Indian Ocean while in the north we had a volcano
that showed high activity earlier in the year, was erupting and ready to burst lava
and all other things that resulted a more terrifying bang. And it has been made
even worse by some people who spread the rumor of tsunami. It was followed by
hundreds of aftershocks. Up to now, the quake has been traumatic experience for
many people.
During that kind of situation, there will be many things need to be tracked, information to be collected and shared, including the magnitude, the epicenter, update number of
death toll and people injured, the possibility of a tsunami, situation in the
site (there may be people in remote area or in the most affected area who need
help), coverage of the disaster, aftershocks, and its related stuff. While information concerning local government readiness, public facilities that are not damaged or still working (hospital, telecommunication service provider, etc), evacuation route, possible access to sites, water resource available and still working properly, areas of open land
that may be used for safe temporary refugee camps, sanitation facilities, etc
are important as well.
Would be great if Ushahidi can be of assistance to the community, the government, NGOs, and the world, during the emergency phase and moreover as part of the disaster preparedness plan or its early warning system.
Disaster preparedness plan or at least its early warning system that allows people to
know whether or not the earthquake potentially triggers tsunami thus minimize
the possibility of any confusion caused by any rumor would be extremely
important, even for those living in areas that are not prone to disaster as it
can happen anywhere. It needs not to be the most advance one because maybe the
simplest one can as well be helpful, as long as the community has agreed the
symbol of each warning, the evacuation route and the bunker/safe place to go.
If this goes well, and the Ushahidi works, both will be a great collaboration to
reduce the death toll and number of people injured = save lives.
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