Helping Wellington Get Thru

Helping Wellington Get Thru
Submitted by Vikram on Thu, 23/06/2011 - 10:23pm
23 Jun 2011

When a disaster strikes, the community has always rallied to help. The Internet has changed who, how and when the community helps. No longer is the response geographically limited or limited to shifting rubble.

It’s therefore important to understand the relationship between official and community responses when a natural disaster hits and plan for it. While the specifics will be different, depending upon the type of disaster and popular online tools at that time, the general nature can be predicted.

The immediate response to a natural disaster is predominantly official. The overriding concern is search and rescue which requires a hierarchal, top-down response. Driven by a “duty to care”, it’s about saving lives. Time and authoritative information are of the essence.

Then the community response kicks in. Using a variety of tools- from bare hands to mobile phones to computers- people jump in to help. No permission asked for, none needed. Crowdsourced information starts flying in. As time goes on, the needs of the survivors become increasingly apparent and pressing.

This bottom-up effort complements the official response. Together they address the varying needs of people at different stages of the natural disaster response. Yin and yang, working together. Synergistic.

Yet the reality is different.

The experience from the role of the online community in responding to the Christchurch earthquakes showed that the role of the community-led response was viewed negatively by the officials. A lack of appreciation led to suspicion and misaligned expectations. All of this while the people of Christchurch got a huge amount of help and valued the community help.

So I asked some people in the online community with firsthand experience of responding to the Christchurch earthquakes and others with personal experience on the ground to share their stories. They told officials from the Wellington City Council and Wellington Emergency Management Office what they did and the lessons learnt. I also asked some people to give us an international perspective so that the lessons from other global natural disasters could also be factored in.

We didn’t want to be critical of Christchurch officials. They did a wonderful job and continue to do so under very challenging circumstances. The intent was to understand what worked, what didn’t, and what lessons we could learn for the future. So we held the meeting under the Chatham House Rule to allow for free and frank discussions.

The result was fascinating insights and a real appreciation for specific steps that Wellington City Council can take now to plan and prepare for working with the online community when a natural disaster hits Wellington. And their response has been terrific- engaged and keen to take action.

Notes and Recommended Action Points (or download as RTF document).
Of course the lessons and action points are not applicable to Wellington City Council alone. I hope that all of New Zealand’s 67 territorial authorities will find this valuable.
Please help us spread the word. You’ll be helping everyone get thru.

ends

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