October 24, 2007
Residents Turn to Web, Cellphones, Google to Spread Fire News
Technology is proving crucial as Southern California residents fight raging wildfires. ABC's News10
"They're using text messages, video, blogs, Google maps and databases to describe the chaos, find missing people and share strategies.
Despite fears of an overload, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon said their cellphone networks were working fairly well. Some cell towers were affected by fire or power outages. But cell companies have learned to reroute network resources during such a crisis, Sprint.
Meanwhile, residents deployed other technologies, including:
-- Text messaging. Because emergency personnel asked residents to limit cellphone use, Kim Nguyen, 28, an accountant from San Diego, relied on texts to keep track of displaced friends.
--The University of California, San Diego, and the University of San Diego used emergency text-message systems to blast updates to students and faculty. It was the first time USD used the system, which alerted nearly 10,000 people that classes were canceled.
-- KPBS, a radio and TV station in San Diego, offered frequent fire updates via Twitter, a popular website that blasts information to subscribers' text-messaging or e-mail accounts.
-- Streaming audio and video. USD senior Shelby Holliday, 21, produced two news videos about the fire's impact on fellow students, then posted them on the video-sharing site YouTube. "
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