Internet in the time of disaster

MANILA, Philippines – For a few weeks recently, Facebook and Twitter momentarily ceased to be just social networking sites. As Ondoy and later Pepeng rendered streets impassable, downed telephone lines and cut off electricity, people turned to mobile Internet to reach out to family and friends.

Through Twitter, the real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices, people, including celebrities, were able to send advisories that necessitated immediate action, picked up by their Twitter followers and contacts.

At the heighat of Ondoy’s onslaught, Smart subscribers found their mobile phones still working and tweeted for help for a friend, a friend’s friend, and even for complete strangers stuck in homes or trapped on their rooftops.

Jun Narva and his wife Gena, who were stranded in Quezon City, were able to keep tabs on their sons trapped in their Marikina residence, giving them safety instructions using a laptop. Their sons, in turn, kept them posted on the flood situation back home. “I used Smart Bro, while my sons used PLDT myDSL at home,” narrates Jun.

On Facebook, one wall post was a cry for help to find a missing family and their dog.

Those affected used mobile Internet to post updates on the situation in their respective locations. Others shared facts downloaded from news agencies.

Where newspapers could not be delivered, readers followed the news on online editions of both print and broadcast media.

“I had so many tabs open as I surfed several websites at the same time. We used the Internet for video and audio streaming to get news from ANC and dzMM,” says Grace Hermedez Hain, a businesswoman.

An interactive Google map was also created using available data from professional sources, with additional inputs from private individuals sharing information about someone who needs urgent help or the status on flooding in their area. The map, maintained by a group of volunteer mapmakers, documented flood updates and persons needing to be rescued.

Videos of flooded streets, people wading through waist-high water, and houses and buildings in ruins were taken and uploaded onto YouTube. Shown on national television was Camille Magno’s video of a security guard saving a doctor trapped on the roof of her car as floodwaters raged through the parking lot of UERM Manila.

When the gravity of the situation became apparent, people also used the Internet to mobilize disaster-response efforts. The information superhighway was filled with advisories for those who wanted to donate relief goods or volunteer to distribute them.

Again using the micro-blogging site Twitter, friends organized their own relief efforts. Celebrities planned and got underway a fundraiser for the victims of Ondoy. There were those who set up soup kitchens. Others pulled resources together for a group donation.

Grace and many of her friends exchanged messages on how to assist fellow Laguna residents in the most affected areas. “We coordinated relief efforts especially for communities living near Laguna de Bay who were among the hardest hit,” she says.

Some friends, including a medical representative, gave 100 bags of relief goods and medicine to affected residents of San Pedro and Biñan, while Grace gave her donations to victims in Cabuyao.

To get the word around, people were also tweeting rescue numbers, emergency hotlines, including tips for volunteers and donors.

Blogs talked about ways one can help the victims of Ondoy by donating relief goods or volunteering services for relief efforts. Calls to action came with consolidated lists of drop-off points for relief goods and places where one could sign up as volunteer.

Filipinos based or working abroad who wanted to give financial assistance were able to send their donations online. In an Oct. 1 website post, consumer group TXTPower reported that they had turned over a fourth check to the Philippine National Red Cross, with the total amount of online donations reaching P1,678,437.63.

With Metro Manila still reeling from the havoc wreaked by Ondoy, individuals once again turned to the Internet in the face of yet another trouble looming. Updates on typhoon Pepeng were shared online. One blogger, GM Tristan, even posted a guide in putting together a disaster kit meant to prepare each member of the family.

Even in the aftermath of the storms, the online community continued to remind Filipinos that there is still much to be done, that help is still needed. In an Oct. 12 blog entry, iMoM wrote, “We must not get weary of helping, and of appealing for help.” With this was a list of direct ways to help, also found on the Web.

It will take some time for people to get over the trauma. What we will not forget is how during those trying times, we were connected and being so, were able to act as one to give every Filipino a fighting chance to weather the fierce storm. –(The Philippine Star)