Communication in a disaster: success of text messages.

Police and other communication failed in New Orleans, and city officials could not reach each other. But text messages did get through. While police and city offices could not communicate at all, people in the disaster area could update their blogs by email and report to the world, using their Blackberry or other wireless email machine, often recharged by car battery since no other power was available. Reporters discovered that they could file stories from New Orleans by text messages, when they had no other means. Wireless text messages also worked when telephones did not after the recent London subway bombing.

Messages can get through when a network is damaged or overloaded because they can wait and keep trying, then transmit quickly when a connection becomes available--while a telephone call requires that various equipment in different locations be available continuously and simultaneously. Also, text messages allow many more people to communicate than if they were using voice phone calls on the same channel. Short voice messages should also work (although maybe not as well) for those who cannot type. Clearly text messaging should be considered for future disaster communication.

People may want to learn how to use wireless email or short messages on their cell phones before a disaster occurs; sometimes the service has to be turned on and paid for before it can be used, and that may be impossible during an emergency. The U.S. is far behind other countries in popular use of wireless text communication, because here many companies charge extra fees, instead of including text messages in the basic service; therefore many customers cannot receive the messages, reducing the value of this medium for everyone.

Landline phones have traditionally worked fairly well in emergencies (a long wait for a dial tone means that the system is overloaded--too many people are trying to call at once--but often one can wait and get through). Wireless could be more reliable, as there is far less infrastructure to worry about, no hundreds of miles of wires and associated equipment. The wireless hardware could be all-weather. The towers could be self-contained using batteries and satellite, and could be airlifted in if those in the area had been destroyed.

Example: A Conversation Database

A text-plus-voice message communication system could allow several people to contribute simultaneously to an ongoing conversation database, compiled separately on everyone's portable or other equipment--and easily viewed through a choice of filters, each showing a different communication channel with the most recent messages first. For example, rescue workers could at any time choose to see all messages, or official headquarters announcements only, or official plus all messages from their own team and any coordinating teams, or perhaps all messages related to drinking water, etc. Meanwhile, anyone with the equipment could send messages to the database when necessary; headquarters would monitor all reformation coming in and send it out on the appropriate channels. Pressing a button or touching the screen would instantly show a new selected channel, with no delay at all since the messages would be stored on the local device and need not be re-sent.

Rescue workers could send either text or voice messages to headquarters or to their group. These could automatically be stamped with time and sender text, and headquarters could add additional text if desired, then send the messages into the same channels as the text messages above. Only one or a few people at headquarters would need to type.

Workers who were not available due to critical tasks would not have missed the messages permanently, as they could come back to them later if necessary. And even in the worst case, if all communication went out temporarily or permanently, everyone's database would still have the messages sent in all the channels so far, to help guide coordination.

A less obvious advantage of a conversation database is that, if used well, it produces a work product immediately useful to the group as a whole. Dialog conversations (like traditional phone calls) are less likely to be useful to non-participants, unless they have time to listen to the dialog.

Text-and-voice message databases could help in disasters, at least as a backup if other communication fails.