The impact of social media in emergencies. Restoring security and safety in case of crisis.

A year has already past since both earthquakes struck the Spanish city of Lorca and Kobe in Japan. In Lorca, the earthquake came as a total surprise, since Spain is not used to them. Therefore, there was not an alert sent to the population, nor a social media emergency plan established, nor did citizens know what to do to protect themselves. (Basically stay indoors, don’t use elevators, cover under a table or similar away from glass, windows and so on, and don’t move until the shaking stops). If outdoors, move away from buildings, street lights and utility wires). Nine people died when some buildings collapsed. Recovery was organized, through social media, while Emergency Services did their best and were able to restore security in a reasonable time. Fundraising was organised in Twitter (@smxlorca)

Japan Tusnami and Earthquake

The Japanese case is completely different. No only for the magnitude of the catastrophe, that can not be compared ( 15,845 casualties, 3,380 missed and  5,893 injured)  but also for the Tsunami that followed the earthquake. So long as we know, tsunamis can not be predicted. Despite the fact that Japanese citizens know very well what to do in case of earthquake, the impossibility to set a Tsunami’s early warning is the key point when talking about mitigation and recovery. 

Japan's Tsunami

In Japan social media were used from the very beginning, reaching more than 5,500 tweets per second.  Let’s remember that while the earthquake knocked out electricity supplies and shut down two nuclear power plants, Internet availability remained relatively unaffected, so agencies and citizens, as well as the Government, were able to use social networks to find useful information about what to do in the aftermath of the disaster as well as to connect and search for their loved ones.  Usahidi was also very useful.  

                                                           

                                                       

Japan is but one example of how social media has become an essential part of recovering in the aftermath of a disaster. The issue now is how we use social media in the recovery phase of a catastrophe. If we take into consideration that at least a third of the general and online population would expect help to arrive in less than one hour, according to @RedCross survey, it seems to me that PIOs, Governments, Emergency Managers and Agencies should try even harder to come up with their expectations.

Digital volunteers versus virtual operation support team.

Digital volunteers and virtual operation support teams /groups are proving to be a good solution, but as some #smem people say, we should extend this model, since we have the technology and are capable of developing early warning systems. In fact, there are some projects in the European Union, like the Alert4All project, where I give advice as a media expert, which has among their main goals to improve early warning systems in case of emergency. So, as I already said, what is left is our will to use the available technology to enhance recovery in the aftermath of a disaster.

What do you think? Comments are welcome.

Basic Life Support: training students in emergencies

The Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine has just published a longitudinal investigation which shows how high school students’ skills –related to CPR- improve after being training with Basic Life Support Techniques. The document indicates that Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the most common cause of death worldwide. It affects about 350,000 to 700,000 people in Europe annually and its incidence is expected to rise in the coming years. Although the Sudden Cardiac Arrest incidence at schools accounts for only 2.6% of all public location, if students, as well as teachers, know CPR manoeuvres, they can save a life that, otherwise, might be lost. Moreover, they will be capable of applying CPR anywhere a person collapsed by them.

According to Theresa M Meissner, Cordula Kloppe and Christoph Hanefeld investigation  people who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest depend on prompt basic life support (BLS). Patients who receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have a two to three times higher survival rate (8.2% vs. 2.5% for patients who did not receive CPR). Extensive education of the population in particular countries and regions led to high numbers of bystander CPR in cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. To mention but one example, 12 year old Kylee Shea collapsed in her school (in the United States). She survived because two trained teachers helped her using a life saving device, as shown in this video.

However, studies show that often less than one-third of out-of hospital witnessed cardiac arrest victims receive bystander CPR. Furthermore, 50-65% of cardiac arrests happen at home. Because these victims are less likely to receive bystander CPR, they have poorer outcomes than those who are subject to out of hospital cardiac arrest in other non-hospital locations. In these cases, bystanders are usually family members and can include high school aged students. “Educating school children about Basic Life Support- Meissner, Kloppe and Hanefeld say- is an excellent strategy to reach a broad public and increases the percentage of trained adults in a community”. It is also relevant the fact that high school students have the cognitive and physical ability to act as first bystanders in an emergency by providing CPR to children and even adults.

Other Civil Protection contents

There are some other important skill that students should learn at school. What to do in case of fire, how to act in a car accident, how to prevent, manage and protect yourself in case of natural or man made disaster, how to communicate the incident when calling 112 (911 in the USA), how to evacuate a building, if necessary.

In #Edcivemerg share the opinion that schools are an ideal setting to teach these contents  because a large part of the community is introduced to these life-supporting prospects. We highly recommend that all this knowledge are implemented as a mandatory part of the curriculum. And that is why #Edcivemerg spokespersons are having a meeting tomorrow with the General Director of Evaluation and Cooperation, Xavier Gisbert @XGDC at the Ministry of Education to present him our manifesto and some contents proposals to be introduce in Spanish schools.


What do you think? Comments are welcome.