Media Observations on Lifelines
Read the Report: Lifelines Media Glean: M6.0 South Napa Earthquake (0.2 MB PDF)
Summary of Impacts to Lifelines and Utilities from the August 24, 2016 Amatrice, Italy Earthquake
Regional Roads (e.g. Highways) Status: Disrupted Several roads that facilitate access into Amatrice have been blocked or damaged from the earthquake. Of particular concern is damage to bridges that are the only efficient means of accessing the city [Al Jazeera]. Aftershocks increased damage to roads and bridges. Primary passageways into the city have been entirely […]
Observations on University of Canterbury Student Association Communications
The man responding to every single comment is a twenty-something guy named Ryan. In his spare time he runs an online comedic site, similar to The Onion in the U.S. He brings levity and spirit to his work at the UCSA Facebook site as he interprets official University communications for students, bringing news to them […]
Tohoku, Japan, Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011: Lifeline Performance
Damage was extensive… coal, oil and gas-power plants, wastewater treatment plants, substations, water transmission and distribution pipelines, highways, penstocks, telecom, all had various forms of tsunami and shaking damage. Some mitigation measures worked well; others not so much. Rapid response was much improved as compared to Kobe 1995. A 60-page presentation is available for download, […]
Telecommunications
From: “Why didn’t cellphones work?”, Politico, David Saleh Rauf The technological traffic jam that rendered cellphones useless in the wake of Tuesday’s temblorhas officials pondering a scary question: What happens if a real disaster strikes the nation’s capital? While police and firefighters in and around the capital apparently communicated just fine after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake, the rest […]
Utilities
From: “Gas leak downtown causes evacuations”, Fredericksburg.com Two gas leaks that caused evacuations downtown yesterday were located and repaired early this morning by crews from Columbia Gas. Ruptures in the 8″ cast iron underground natural gas line were discovered near William St at Prince Edward St and near Amelia St at Prince Edward St. The repairs were […]
NRC to North Anna Nuclear Power Station
Read the 2-page Report: NRC to North Anna Nuclear Power Station (0.087 MB PDF)
How technology has improved emergency response in Nepal
Search and Rescue With new natural and man made disasters comes new applications of existing technology. The recent earthquake in Nepal has highlighted this through crowdsourcing data (check out our previous post), and more recently through the application of NASA technology to find people trapped under rubble. The search-and-rescue technology called FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and […]
Tech Giants Help Track Nepal Earthquake Survivors as Communications are hit.
This story, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 27, 2015, provides a brief overview of the communication services developed by Google and Facebook which help families locate survivors. WSJ Tech Giants Help Track Nepal Earthquake Survivors Louise K. Comfort is Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director, Center for Disaster Management, University […]
CDAC Network Communicating with Communities Updates
Nepal Earthquake: Communicating with Communities Updates from The Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network. CDAC Network Report 1 (April 28, 2015): The first report of the status of the communication system in Nepal provides an overview of the resources available; telephone, radio broadcasts, and internet services. The report indicates that many telecommunication services are offering free […]