Web 2.0 Helps Direct San Diego Evacuations

I saw this article on Yahoo about the local PBS station creating a mashup to show evacuation plans and announcements. The Church meetinghouse in Escondido is listed as a shelter. Great way to use technology to aid in a very difficult situation.

The biggest issue I can see is that people may not have web access in an emergency (who's going to plunk down in front of the computer in a time like that?) and that the information is delayed a bit since the application is run by a tv station instead of emergency officials. Stay safe, people!

I used to live in San Diego and if I were still there, I would have been evacuated by the Witch fire. I have many friends and family still there and they were evacuated and went to the local stake center for shelter. I can assure you that many people living there do have Internet connectivity .. even those evacuated. For example at Qualcomm stadium volunteers have set up web stations and cell phone charging stations so that people can send communicate with loved ones and check on the status of their homes, etc. Also this type of Web site is very critical for people who have family and friends in San Diego to keep appraised of the situation since it is sometimes hard to contact our loved ones.

Tom

I wonder if some sort of semi-permanent mashup could be created by the Church for future emergency situations to help members find other members and loved ones within a crisis area, which chapels are available as shelters, where members with particular skills are located (ham radio, etc...) and help create another tool to help Church members and relief arms of Humanitarian Services better serve in emergencies.

For a long time Hams have been providing emergency communications
for the Church.

But over that last few years I haven't seen much activity in that area,
here in St. George.

When I live in the Los Angeles area, we had a very active group and
had weekly net check in.

During the Whittier quake in 1986/7 (can't remember the exact year) the training we had received by just passing messages through the system really helped us, when the real event happened.

Hams still provide that service, up here in Provo we have a semi annual SET "Simulated Emergency Training" in league with the Utah Sheriff's Department where we have a mock emergency using everything. Up in WA state they did the same thing on a stake basis.

But still going through someone is not as convenient as going through the web or a cell phone. So it is nice for convenience's sake.