Forest Fire in la Gomera. Why don’t create a Vost Spain to monitor social media in disasters?

I really can’t understand why authorities are unable to decide who should be the official source when a disaster-a forest fire in our case-strikes. The lack of decision makes it difficult to counter criticism as well as to trust the different sources of information, in a sense that neither the public, nor the media know for certain whether the information delivered is accurate and trustful.  

Since the fire is, according to law, in emergency level 2, it is being managed by the regional authorities in the Canary Island. Nonetheless, it is the press manager of the cabildo insular who is monitoring information in social media through her official account (@KarenBencomoP) without any coordination with the  official 112 twitter account (@112Canarias) who is also informing.

As @jldecastellvi says in his post , @KarenBencomoP  seems to be a new account created because of the fire. Having more than one spokesperson shouldn't be a problem, so long as the information delivered is coordinated and there is a single message. Otherwise, we may have a lot of noise, which can lead to rumour spreading.

I’ve been told that a group of emergency professional, among which are @jldecastellvi, @LuisSerranoR, Javier Blanco (@tango_alfa2), @GalvezRivas and Mónica Ojeda (@artebirgo) are thinking of creating a VOST Spain to monitor information in cases like this.

It sounds to me it a really sensible and great idea. What do you think?

Why rumours spread on #ardevalencia fires: from lack of monitoring to rumour spreading

Lack of coordination between those who were in charge of social media during Valencia fires seems to me the main reason why rumours spread so quickly during the incident. But it wasn't the only one. When there isn't an official and trustworthy source of infomation, neither a single message nor a credible spokeperson, what we must face is counter criticism. But how can we fight rumour when no one is listening to social media and local authorities are not monitoring them? How it is possible to trust oficial sources when the infomation delivered is neither coordinated nor accurate?

 The messages delivered by what we could considered the offical sources mixed everything, from the chainsaws that no authority asked for in Carlet  to the 902 phone number that @CruzRojaEsp added to one message and people included since then in every tweet they send, as well as the combination of these two factors, causing confussion everywhere. Why did all this mess-up kept going for at least three days? Probably because no one was monitoring social media nor listening to what was being said.

What the official account of the local government in Valencia @gva_112cv was doing was pulling data, which doesn't sound that bad, if data were useful. But it wasn't, since they were pulling technichal data, with have no interests to citizens. As in a 1.0 world, they were not monitoring social media but releasing not useful information through Facebook and Twitter, as in the old days. The same way we used to send press releases using the mass media some years ago, as if the landscape had not changed.

Communications in Social Media emergency era

No one was answering to what citizens were saying, as @luisserranor explained so well in this video. 

 Lack of credibility

Trustworthy can not be achieved on a single day. @gva_112cv didin't have the chance, till now, to face a disaster of this magnitute. I don't know how many people are in charge of that account, but it also seems a fact that they don't count on a VOST  to help them. What doensn't work in the ordinary does not work in the extraordinary, and that lack of expertise is probably the reason why no one thought, for instance, of using something like a Usahidi map to locate those places of interest.

We all know what happens when you don't trust the source of information. You seek what you need to know somewhere else, and that is what happens here. It is neccessary to engage with your community by releasing useful information and listening to what they are saying about you, as well as answering their question. Following this path, it would be possible that, when a disaster strikes, you can monitor information through social media and, by delivering a single message, you can become a trusted source of information, capable of coping with the situation and have some chance of being listen to.

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.

Would you know how to face an emergency?

Only this week, the EdCivEmerg team found out an interesting video  where we can see how very young Northern Ireland children have being trained to acquire Basic Life Support techniques, in order to know what to do in case of an emergency at home, in a shop or in the street. It has been estimated that if Basic Life Support had been given to these victims, 1800 lives could had been saved. 

Here in Spain, we also have some programmes, but we don’t have this content at school. This means that Basic Life Support is unknown by most citizens. I have a 14 year old son who, now and then, when it is too hot or the place is too crowdy, he faints. Till now, either his father or me have been around to help him. But from now on, since he is starting going out by himself, with some friends of his age, who will help him if the situation worsen? What if no one does something as simple as taking him out into the shade, put his head down and his legs up? What if no one alerts the emergency services, in case it is needed?

Basic Life Support

As you may know, up to 75 % of citizens suffer cardiac arrests at home, 3 out of 4. 25.000 people every year here in Spain.  Up to a thirty per cent of the population seems to know how to make a cardiopulmonary resucitation.  In other words, only 3 out 10 people can apply mouth to mouth resuscitation and cardiac massage. Just a few citizens are capable of applying Basic Life Support. It is been estimated that every minute a person who suffers a cardiac arrest and they are not treated their posibilities of survival decreases to a 10 %. After 8 to 10 minutes, they will not be able to survive. 

Probabilities of survival a cardiac arrest, in terms of time
consumed until resucitation maneuvers start.

Parliamentary bill

I wish we could avoid it. But wishes go nowhere. That’s why a group of professionals have joined our efforts in www.EdCiv.Emerg to ask our authorities to include Civil Protection and Emergencies content at school. Our aim is simple. We want so save lives: my son, your son, your neighbour, any human being around you who may need your help. To this aim, our local Government will present a parliamentary initiative next week to include these contents in a new subject at school. We are talking about very basic principles that can be applied by any one in case of an emergency. Starting from the very beginning.: Protect (yourself and the victim) Alert (the emergency services by calling 112 in Europe- 911 in the USA) and Save. 

In the USA a proposal to require hands-on CPR practice in high school resuscitation programs has passed the Senate. 

I hope Spanish proposal goes on the same way.

How a social media campaign can help save lives

As many of you may already know, a group of emergency services professionals have started a campaign to include civil protection education in schools here in Spain, with the ultimate goal of saving lives. The opportunity arose when our new Education Minister José Ignacio Wert , @Jiwert, announced that it was his intention to introduce some changes in a school subject called Civil Education. To this end, we have created the hastag #EdCivEmerg, where you can follow all the information related to this topic. 

It all started last week when Luis Serrano @LuisSerranoR posted a tweet  to the Education Minister asking him whether he would consider adding civil protection and first aid contents to this subject. The Minister replied that he liked the idea.  Following this, the idea was endorsed by Government Adviser, Cristina Cifuentes (@ccifuentes), the Presidency Adviser Regina Plañol (@reginaplanol), as well as some NGOs, such as the Spanish Red Cross, (@CruzRojaEsp), the Spanish Association Against Fire (ASELF), (@ASELFcomunica), the  Spanish Society of Cardiology @secardiologia, and many other organizations and citizens connected to Civil Protection.

PSAPs support

Last Tuesday, 7th February, the campaign received a great boost when all the directors of Civil Protection, and the Director of PSAP, decided to publicly endorse our proposal. I’d like to give my special thanks to @javierromaguera,  Director of 112 service in the Spanish city of Ceuta (situated in North Africa), who has backed  this initiative from the very beginning, and has introduced it to their fellow colleagues.

Social Media Back-up

As you can see, following the hastag #EdCivEmerg, hundreds of citizens are signing up to the manifesto, named ‘Civic Education and Emergencies’.

We could not have been able to obtain support from such a great number of people without the social media, including traditional media through their twitter accounts. 

European 112 day

February 11 is European 112 day. A great chance to spread the word. Help us reach  Emergency Services, once and for all, through a single phone number,  and help us save lives by training children on First Aid and Civil Defense at school.

All the members of #EdCivEmerg team , @Alfredo_112,  @pelluzo,  @CarlosMatabuena, . @danielortiz1984,  @fernanlopezmesa, . @FonsecaFj, . @igonzalezh,  @tango_alfa2, @jvarela, @Jorgeizdo, 

@ChemaCepeda,  @jldecastellvi, . @LuisSerranoR,  @marcoseguillor, @jesterhanny,  @PaolaGonzalezH,  @mrsrosaperez and myself @marialuisamoreo, an many more,  are doing our best to have our children prepared in the case of an emergency, as they are in the U.S.A, Japan, or Northern Europe, to quote a few examples. Our goal is to save lives, and that, in our opinion, should be taught at school, on a regular basis, so that citizens are able to cope in an emergency situation. 

Don’t you agree?

If you would like to sign up to our campaign, you can do so on our website www.edciviemerg.com. Here you can also read the many interviews we carried since last week. 

Do social networks make citizens equal when a disaster strikes? What do you think?

It is a fact that nowadays, trough social media, we can have last minute information of almost any natural or man-made disaster, providing there is someone broadcasting and also taking into consideration whether the disaster has been predicted and announced (Hurricanes normally are) or not (terrorist attack). Even in the second case, we would always count on some bystanders eager to share the explosion. It is also a fact that the use of social media in disasters is increasing, as we have recently seen in the Turkey earthquake, and that lives are being saved thanks to the geolocated gadgets included in smartphones. 

If we think about where information comes form, we find that in countries technologically developed, where most of the population owns a cell phone, we will probably be informed at once of whatever happens. On the other side, in countries without these facilities citizens will have more difficulties in accessing the Internet and, therefore, we could say that we will see less information trough the new media.

This seems obvious, but it is not that simple.

From the old media to social media

Social media are one more tool to get information, but not the only one. It is true that they have completely changed not only the way information is delivered but also they have given everyone with a cell phone the possibility to broadcast information, as @gbaron explains so well in this video about crisis communication. The point is, have they really changed completely the scenario, as gbaron says?

I could agree a hundred per cent with him, but  I still think there are some other aspects we should consider in crisis communications.

Agenda-setting

I’m talking here of the old media agenda-setting, which is the criteria used by mass media to decide what news will be broadcast, based on parameters such as  human interests, proximity, number of casualties, how outrageous the crisis is, whether the person involved in a crisis is a celebrity and so on.

The Turkey's earthquake                                    

The question is, is it true that any explosion will be immediately broadcast anywhere in the world regardless of where the place it occurs and its consequences? I might say the answers is no. Why? First of all, because, as I say at the beginning of this post, technological development is a must. If a thousand people die from an explosion in a place where no one has a cell phone, no one would be able to use Twitter to let us know. We would get that information delivered trough traditional mass media, providing they were on site.

Traditional media versus new media

If we agree to this point, I’ll pose a new question. Is there a TV, radio station or newspaper office in that place? If the answer is yes, it is surely because the place is important enough to be in our prayers. What I mean is that we probably have some kind of interest there, either  technological, economic ( petrol, gas), political, humanitarian or of any other kind. If that is the case, there will probably be a technological development strong enough to access the internet, if not by everyone at least for the media, non-governmental organizations and many citizens.

 Therefore, if the media are there, we could get information delivered in the old way: an event occurs, there is a response and information is delivered through the media to the crowd. The most outstanding difference is the number of channels. We would have some more with social media so, if we have a snake eating its tail, why I am writing this post?

Flooding in India

                                                

For one reason. If we admit that there is not a TV or Radio station everywhere, then we would not be able to get the information, and this means that, though it may sound unbelievable, there are still some places in the world which do not exists, form an agenda-setting point of view, since we have no news from them at all. Proof is that there are no examples at all of information  related to those places being delivered.

 If we think of some Third World countries, we might reach the conclusion that we have never ever heard news from them. To make it more obvious, how many countries are in the world whose names- not to mention where they are- we don’t even know? Is it possible that nothing ever happens in those places?

Technological development

To sum up, we could say equality is a problem of technological development. If the country has been able to develop resilience channels and their citizens are wealthy enough to own a cell phone they will have the same chances as everyone else to share information using multiple channels, and, by sharing, they would be able to obtain some help, if needed. If it is not the case, citizens could only count on traditional media, if there is any, to let the world know what’s going on there.