Over the last couple of months disaster responders worldwide have seen how Twitter and Facebook have become indispensable tools for communities hit by disasters. Recently, in tornado-hit areas in the USA people quickly put up Facebook pages to post updates, and more importantly ask for help and resources or offer help and resources. Animal organizations and individuals began to post locations of found animals, including pictures. As a result, in many cases animals were re-united with their people without having to go to an emergency animal shelter or to animal control first. For animals in disasters, this is second best only to animals evacuating with their people. In other examples local kennels would offer free boarding to victims of disasters. In other cases regular and emergency shelters would put out requests for food and volunteers. One example of these developments is at http://vtirene.crowdmap.com/. For an archived version of the Irene clean up process go to http://irenerecoverymap.com/.
“All disaster response and recovery is local”
It has taken us a while to get there, but the signs are overwhelming: local communities are more disaster resilient and so less dependent on outside help than before. Locals resolved animal related disaster issues this year by taking the lead and volunteers from elsewhere coming in to help them. A wonderful and necessary development. The challenge is how to make sure that local, volunteer-led, disaster response provides the best quality of response possible.
FEMA seems to begin to understand that the success of disaster response and disaster recovery depends on FEMA getting out-of-the-way of local, community-based (civilian) organizations and become an enabler, a tier two responder (See Policy Challenges in Supporting Community Resilience, see below.) The old and worn-out mantra of the Incident Command System: “All Disasters Are Local” is now “All Disaster Response and Recovery Is Local”. The emphasis has shifted away from the old cold-war command-and-control philosophy to one where local, community-based groups will play the role that makes or breaks disaster response and disaster recovery.
I hope that for the rest of the emergency infrastructure (the “uniforms”) the realization that they are neither trained nor equipped to effectively deal with all aspects of disasters will also sink in. They, too, need to get out-of-the-way and re-invent themselves as enablers…
What has been lacking, though, is a good vehicle for local people to ask for and for others (local or elsewhere) to offer help. While Facebook, Twitter and Craig’s List are great tools to get the news out quickly, they are not very well-organized. Enter crisis mapping as a way to do it all. And more.
Crisis Mapping is “Mutual Aid” On Steroids
Crisis mapping (crowd sourcing) is combines people and technology. The technologies used by people to ask for or to offer help and resources are familiar to most: texting, tweets, Facebook postings, blog postings etc. Most of us also have experience with Google maps and databases in general. Combined these are powerful tools in the hands of people who know what they do.
And that is where the people come in. While tweets are posted automatically if they contain the correct hash tags and text messages are harvested easily if there is a central address to send them to, the job of verification and massaging of information is critical for the success of any exchange of information, goods and services. So far, indications are that communities outside of the disaster area are likely to step up to the plate and lend their help. The system is working. One danger I see is that because of the success of crisis mapping FEMA and others are tempted to step in to “regulate” this phenomenon. They should not do that.
Crisis Mapping needs to stay in the public domain
One of the drawbacks of relying too much on the emergency infrastructure has always been the counter-productive bureaucratization of disaster response. During an emergency (when most of the infrastructure is working as expected) going “through channels” (or “coloring between the lines”) is logical and necessary. After all, the agencies are in charge and they have to follow protocol. But in a disaster, the situation is very, very different. The emergency infrastructure ceases to work. Emergency responders are not trained to deal with them and must “unlearn” much of what they have learned.
Crisis Mapping offers community based organizations and people a way to quickly and efficiently organize mutual aid nation-wide (or globally if needed). In Crisis Mapping the agencies will have to face what their constituency requires them to do, what they can do and what they must support to serve their communities.
The community IS in charge of disaster response and recovery
For those who want to learn more about crisis mapping: USHAHIDI (http://www.ushahidi.com/) is a great place to start. You will find an open atmosphere, very much like the early days of the Web (that is before politicians tried to regulate it on behalf of the monopolies).
Crisis mapping has been around for a while and has shown its value. From disasters in Africa, the Haiti earthquake, all the way to Hurricane Irene (and other disasters to follow). I believe that crisis mapping is a wonderful addition to the resources available to disaster responders. Let’s find out how we can make best use of it!
Frans Hoffman
