Situation Report

Volunteers have been busy monitoring and responding to events for the first two weeks of October.  Thank you team for your spontaneous and organized approach to monitoring and responding to disaster this month!

October 1 EQ Japan Volunteers : @cinbee, @samoaalerts @peaceful_intent

6.2 Earthquake On 10/1/2012 10:21:45 PM UTC depth 9.7km has struck an unpopulated area in the Tohoku Province (population: 9.9 million) in Japan.  Dart Buoys were monitored and did you feel it was released and tweeted, volunteers monitored for urgent needs.

October 1 Nigeria Flooding Volunteers: @sahnetaeter, @CERTghana, @sylviasdaisies,
@nemanigeria is the official EMA for the region and they also have a facebook

Christoph Dennenmoser reported severe flooding in Nigeria.  “Since early July, heavy rains in Nigeria  caused severe flooding that displaced thousands of families, destroyed crops and made transporting goods to communities extremely difficult. Most of Nigeria’s 37 states were affected and more than 30 communities completely submerged. The hardest hit communities were in the area around the Niger and Benue Rivers. According to Nigerian Red Cross, 148 people were killed, 64,000 displaced, and over 130,000 affected” Via Redcross Newsroom.  Awareness tweeting as NEMA warns flood victims as crocodiles and hippos invade homes.  No specific active hashtags for this event. "There is now a hippopotamus in [my] house," Benue state resident Wuese Jirake told the BBC. "I hope that when it is tired, it may leave my home

October 7 - Cholera Outbreaks in India, Ghana, Kenya.  Volunteers:  @CERTghana, @peaceful_intent,@cinbee, @mm4marketing.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) says providing safe drinking water is mandatory for containing a cholera outbreak , Yakubu has been monitoring outbreaks and Volunteers are working with him and the CERT Ghana to help them access critical Cholera educational programs for their region.   Outbreaks were recorded and awareness messages shared.  No relevant active hashtags for this event

October 8 – 6.0 Gulf of California - @rskye and @PRseprepara @redcrossmom @rvaregal @sahnetaeter @mm4marketing   Dart Buoys were monitored and did you feel it was released and tweeted, volunteers monitored for urgent needs. three felt it responses at USGS site originating from Baja and Sinaloa http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/c000d3ne/us/index.html.

October 8 Shots fired at Mall Henrico, NJ – Volunteers @redcrossmom @rvaregal @cinbee  An incident involving shots fired was reported at a mall in Henrico's west end shortly before 2 p.m. Monday, according to Henrico Police.  @Redcrossmom confirmed locals and news agencies tweeting emerging information regarding the incident and related evacuations and lockdowns. @humanityroad released safety and communications tweets “In a disaster - remember to let your loved ones know you are ok. And – “Cant get through on voice? Try text messaging #hmrd” as well as “Verify twice tweet once - rumors and misinformation put lives at risk”.  Volunteers monitored for urgent needs.   hashtags active  #hmrd #rva #va

October 11 was a busy night with significant weather #wx – Volunteers @sct_r , SaigonTodd, @sahnetaeter, @CERTghana, @Aline_Carr, Magi Shepley.  @sct_r , SaigonTodd  reported significant waves and weather in Oregon and Hawaii,  Christoph reported a  6.7 Earthquake M 6.7, D 24,7 km near Papua, Indonesia.  Aline Carr and Magi Shepley worked tornado risks in Texas.

October 13 Tropical Storm Rafael, Hurricane Paulo – Volunteers:  Toni McNulty, SaigonTodd, @peacefulintent @StephenLongmire,  @Aline_Carr.

In the past week, volunteers have been monitoring for urgent needs and those stranded in several recent Earthquakes, significant storm patterns in the USA as well as China and a shooting incident in Auroro Colorado.

Earthquakes Monitored:
Did you feel it links were released in social media and public monitored for impacts on several moderate to strong earthquakes. After a 6.5 struck the Solomon Islands, one resident reported from Honiara "@runmikerun1 Boats appear to be in the same spot and the water is not retreating so I guess no #tsunami? #Solomon Back to bed for now. "”

• Magnitude 6.7 MAURITIUS - REUNION REGION July 26, 2012
• Magnitude 6.5 SOLOMON ISLANDS July 25, 2012
• Magnitude 6.4 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA July 25, 2012
• Magnitude 5.2 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA July 21, 2012
• Magnitude 5.1 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA July 21, 2012

Manmade Events: Friday morning July 20th at 12:39am local time, a gunman entered a movie theater at 14300 E. Alameda Avenue in Aurora Colorado. As of 8:18am local time this morning the Denver Post reporst that about 50 were shot and 12 are killed. Victims have been transported to at least 6 hospitals - some in police cars. The suspects apartment in Northern Aurora is being searched and police have evacuated an area around the building for precaution.  After his arrest, the suspect made a statement about possible explosives in his home. source:  The Denver Post published a map of the location of the nearby hospitals  #SMEM.  Humanity Road volunteers shared information on how to communicate during disaster, information on emotional/disaster distress line.

Severe Weather China:  Volunteer Yakubu from Ghana activated the volunteer disaster desk reporting about the Heaviest rains in 60 years kill 37 in Beijing [The Chinese capital's heaviest rainstorm in six decades killed at least 37 people, flooded streets and stranded 80,000 people at the main airport, state media and the government said on Sunday July 22 with Cyclone #Vicente.    Gusts of 193 km were tracked on tweet reported “Last gust I saw recorded at Ngong Ping (elevated) before it was knocked out was 193km/h pic.twitter.com/VI4Av10X”

Hashtags tracked included #typhoon #hongkong #vicente #09W #t10 #HK #TY201208 #Hanoi

Severe Weather USA  continued in the USA with storms moving across the USA SOUIX FALLS, SD

Reported (ArgusLeader911 ‏@Argus911) A power outage at the city’s purification plant has reduced the amount of water production available And City calls for immediate water restrictions http://tinyurl.com/dyrzozs   ComEd said as of 10 a.m., 165,000 customers were without power, down from 183,000 an hour and 15 minutes earlier. The outages included 45,000 in the city, 17,000 in the north suburbs, 62,000 in the western suburbs and 41,000 in the south suburbs." http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/07/24/severe-thunderstorms-blowing-into-chicago-area/#photo-1

Hashtags monitored:  #Derecho #Tornado #MD #VA #WVA #RVA #DC #NC #PAwx #CTwx #MAwx

Volunteers reporting in included: Yakubu, Christoph, Cindy, Caz, Bettie,  Paul, Chris, Cat

Wildfires are burning in multiple states across the nation this weekend.  Below is an overview of some of the most recent and largest fires.  Evacuations and road closures are in place in some areas.   Officials are urging residents to be diligent in monitoring the situation, follow your local emergency management office, and stay tuned to live alerts via twitter, radio and mainstream news.  Parks in some locations have been closed.  Stay alert to red flag conditions in your area.  You can visit and bookmark our fire page to monitor and for tips

Follow twitter stream and Tips: //www.humanityroad.org/wildfires.htm
Find Shelter:  http://www.redcross.org/nss/  
Current Red Flag Warnings:  http://radar.srh.noaa.gov/fire/

State              Name of Fire                    Inci Rpt Acres      % Contained
Arizona:          Gladiator Fire                       16,240 acres            40%             
California         Banner Fire                            3,100 acres           20%      
Michigan:        Duck fire                            21,000 acres             20%
Michigan:        Pine Creek                             3,400 acres           70%
New Mexico:   Whitewater-Baldy Cmplex       82,000 Acres            0%
Colorado:        Sunrise Canyon (Paradox)         2,800 Acres        Unavail

Source:  Saturday Incident mgt Situation Report: PDF http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

Main Twitter hashtag:  #Wildfire
Micro Hashtags:  See below

Arizona:            @azein                  Website    #AZFire
California:         @calfire                 Website   #CAFire #Bannerfire
Michigan:          @migov                 Website    #MIFire
New Mexico:    @_JSPhillips @LosRanchosEM @swimt1 Website  #NMFire  #Whitewater #WhitewaterBaldyFire 
Colorado:          @CO Emergency     Website    #cofire #SunriseMineFire #SunriseMine #MontroseCounty

• Listen to local radio and television stations for updated emergency information.
• Always back your car into the garage or park it in an open space facing the direction of escape.
• Confine pets to one room so that you can find them if you need to evacuate quickly.
• Arrange for temporary housing at a friend or relative’s home outside the threatened area. Limit exposure to smoke and dust.
• Listen and watch for air quality reports and health warnings about smoke. Keep indoor air clean by closing windows and doors to prevent outside smoke from getting in.
• Use the recycle or re-circulate mode on the air conditioner in your home or car. If you do not have air conditioning and it is too hot to stay inside with closed windows, seek shelter elsewhere.
• When smoke levels are high, do not use anything that burns and adds to indoor air pollution, such as candles, fireplaces and gas stoves. Do not vacuum because it stirs up particles that are already inside your home.
• If you have asthma or another lung disease, follow your health care provider's advice and seek medical care if your symptoms worsen

Did we miss any?  Post it below in comments.  Thanks and be safe!

Humanity Road was a partner and participant in X24 Europe, a global social media exercise which was held March 28, - 30^th, 2011.  An academics day preceded the event and included guest presentations.  Two volunteers from our organization were guest speakers.  A presentation on Social Media During Disaster was delivered from Cat Graham and a presentation on the Red Cross and Red Cresent Society by Christoph Dennenmoser. 

Day 1 of the exercise involved a quake and simulated tsunami in the Adriatic Sea causing damage to the Adriatic Basin.  Volunteers were on active duty for 9.5 hours from 1:30 am to 10:00 am eastern.    Day 1 support of the simulation included monitoring twitter, for impacts, locating hospitals, shelters and urgent needs, verifying details and providing guidance to the local population through social media as well as Crowd mapping incidents.  We also identified, verified and geolocated  information on airports in and near the impacted area and inputted that information to the crowdmap. Tweak the Tweet was launched by Kate Starbird to assist in tracking and geolocating tweets.

Volunteers manned the desk on day two of the exercise for phase III and IV of the long term recovery process.  Information and tweets were released for guidance on disease outbreak including guidance from CDC, information on staying hydrated with the recipe for life, and where to find android applications such as "Outbreaks near me”.  Volunteers provided drinking water tips (Sodis method),  emotional care for compassion fatigue on facebook and twitter.  Also, on day two, we reviewed the inbound tweet traffic to posted comments/solutions on the crowdmap.  Below are preliminary statistics on the exercise comparing it from last year’s event in Southern California to Europe event.

 A special thank you was extended to us from George Bressler for our participation in the drill.  George Bressler is Director of X24 as well as Director of Operational Exercises and Adjunct faculty at San Diego State University Research Foundation.

Great job and a special thank you to Avi Sharma and Joe Savitsky who engaged for their first event, to Christoph who wore many hats for this event including Event Lead, to Toni McNulty for assistance in tweeting, researching and confirming, tweeting from HR, resp onding from the Animals in Disaster cluster and activating Redcrossdog and being available all hours of the night.  To Kate Starbird for issuing Tweak the Tweet for this exercise, to Mary Mead for monitoring and entering into the cluster discussions and providing input and feedback, thanks  to Chris Thompson for leading us off in the exercise, assisting with the Crowdmap and entering hospital records, leading the training team for working with Avi and Joe in preparing the information needed for locals (hospitals, airports and coordinates, etc) and to Simone for supporting the event and monitoring from Brasil.  Over 140 volunteer manhours were contributed for the exercise with an additional 100 hours in core planning preceding the event.   This exercise takes alot of planning, interaction and energy but its rewards are many. Great job everyone! 

Volunteers active in this event: Avi Sharma, Chris Thompson, Christoph Dennenmoser,  Kate Starbird, Simone Coutinho, Toni McNulty  and  Joe Savitzky and Cat Graham.  

San Bruno, CA Fire

10-Sep-10 00:53 | Anonymous member

Six Alarm Fire in San Bruno County was worked by the Volunteers this evening.

@1staid4 activated the team with a live news feed  of the event as it was unfolding.  Volunteers assessed twitter traffic for local impact, needs.

Tweeted information on shelters, closed roads, hospital status and calls for blood and requests for more staff at local hospitals.

Also tweeted were safety tips including:

 “Signal for help using a bright-colored cloth at the window. #sanbruno #fire #hmrd V @redcross”  and, "If you are in a safe zone, stay at home -sightseeing, can impede emergency response http://tinyurl.com/2c7pwq4 #hmrd #sanbrunofire #hmrd"

Hashtags used: #sanbruno #sanbrunofire #fire #offer #hmrd

Volunteers:  @iamvatoni, @christinakr, @peaceful_intent, @1staid4, @fab_bertrand @RVAREGal @redcrossdog

Mentionables:  This retweet by HmRd was RT'd 28 times

"RT @RedCrossBayArea Opening a second shelter in the senior center adjacent to Veterans Memorial Recreation Center. Helping about 180 residents currently."  Redcrossdog tweeted PETCO in San Bruno taking pets in need at San Bruno Fire #SanBruno #SFBay #pets #dogs #cats