Oct 7, 12:50 pm: Thoughts on Recovery 2.0

After Katrina, I wrote the following in response to some internal conversations. I keep wanting to polish it up but realize it’s better to just get it out there.

We know that several things are needed in a disaster like Katrina:

  • a place to report missing and found people
  • a way to find out what geography has been impacted (and what roads are opened and closed)
  • a way to find out where food, water and shelter are located

Rather than coming together post event to work day and night for this, let’s take the good work started on Katrina and move a planning effort forward so that when this happens again (and it will) we can respond with a working system.What would this system do?

  • It would have defined APIs in place so that local sites could post the missing persons database that impacted their constituency. Example? A newspaper could pull related to zip codes, the red cross could have a defined way to dump their own information in when a person signs up a shelter.
  • It would work with cell phones. An impacted individual could send a message to single number, from their cell phone, that would
    indicate they are okay. They could send another message that would indicate they are trapped and in need of help. A text message request would send a reply that would list the location of services. We can vote via our cell phone for American Idol and get send SMS to Google asking for the location of restaurants why not this?
  • It would have a variety of access points. Web address, a variety of cell phone numbers in different parts of the country (people, for example, have been able to call out of NOLA’s area code but not within it.
  • Trained volunteers who can help impacted organizations to implement appropriate parts of this. The trainings would happen, specifics written, before events occurred.
  • Management of strategic partnerships. The Red Cross—let’s just assume this—has a database. We need to make sure theirs—and critical other partners—are integrated into this system as soon as the system is built.

Now is also the time to see what needs to be built and sustained—upgraded as technology changes etc—for the next disaster.

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Marnie Webb  |