Facebook adds emergency check-in feature for natural disasters

In 2011, when a deadly tsunami set off 30-foot tidal waves that crashed into the shores of Japan, flooding entire cities and damaging nuclear power plants, Facebook became an instrumental tool in connecting loved ones and alerting family members to their safety.

The social network is now rolling out a new check-in feature for use during such natural disasters. Safety Check, as the new product is called, was unveiled by CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday afternoon in Tokyo, and is meant to help Facebook users quickly alert friends and family that they are safe during times of crisis, like earthquakes or tsunamis.

Safety Check works by sending users a push notification asking them if they are safe whenever a natural disaster strikes the area they list as their current location. User’s can then see a list of their Facebook friends in the area, and see which users have checked in as safe and which have not.

Facebook will determine what constitutes a disaster worthy of a check-in by communicating with local authorities and experts, says Marcy Scott Lynn, global policy programs manager at Facebook. Safety Check has a few added elements — for example, you can check in for a Friend, and Facebook will ask you to check in if it sees you are traveling in a compromised area — but for the most part, Safety Check is intended for sharing one simple status: Yes, I’m fine.



The initial idea for Safety Check came from Facebook’s Japan office following the 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, hence Zuckerberg’s announcement in Tokyo. Employees at the time developed a Disaster Message Board within Facebook to help families and friends connect in the wake of potential disasters, but the tool was limited to Japanese users and slowly faded as Facebook continued to evolve.

Eleven months ago, product manager Sharon Zeng and software engineer Peter Cottle picked up the project during a company-wide hackathon at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Facebook didn’t partner with any outside organizations on the project, so for now, if a user does not check in during a disaster, authorities won’t be notified in any way. It’s possible that Facebook could partner with groups like the Red Cross down the road, but there are no partnership plans in the works, according to Lynn. “We recognize this tool isn’t for everyone or every time,” she added. “It wasn’t designed as a first responder tool.”

Other online communities, including Twitter, have also added features for sharing important information during natural disasters. Facebook’s Safety Check is now active for all 1.3 billion users.

Saturday 18 October 2014

http://recode.net/2014/10/15/facebook-adds-emergency-check-in-feature-for-natural-disasters/

continue reading

Truck crashes into shop in Cameroon killing 17

A truck crashed into a shop in Cameroon's capital Yaounde, killing 17 students, national radio reported on Friday.

The building in the neighbourhood of Monte des Soeurs was destroyed in the late Thursday accident, witness Aisha Mama told dpa.

The students were buying sweets at the shop. Several people were also seriously injured.

There was no immediate information on the reasons behind the crash.

Saturday 18 October 2014

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Truck-crashes-into-shop-in-Cameroon-killing-17-20141018

continue reading

Tragedy at the Cambrian Colliery disaster of 1965

May 17, 1965. A day forever etched on the memory of the coalmining community of the South Wales valleys.

Next year, on the 50th anniversary, there will be a special event in Clydach Vale near Tonypandy to remember a tragedy.

It seemed to be just another Monday on the P26 coal face at Cambrian Colliery. But as the morning shift drew to a close, that impression changed. In a split second, 31 men lay dead. Another 15 were injured.

The site of one of the last great pit disasters of the South Wales coalfield lies underground but the history lives on in the memories of families and the testimony of those involved.

Nothing should have gone wrong. The “Cam” was equipped with the National Coal Board’s latest technology. The 192-yards of the P26 coalface were cut by an electrically driven “plough-type” machine and the roof supported by hydraulic props.

But that day, there were electrical and mechanical problems. By late morning, the colliery manager and under manager were on the coalface trying to sort the problems. By 12.15pm, the face was “on stop”.

Myrddin Pritchard and his workmates were chatting in the underground roadway near the face, waiting for the all clear. “It was about one o’clock,” he said. “There was a terrible noise — more of a thud than a bang — and a blast of air thick with dust and smoke came down the coal face.”

His worst fears were soon confirmed.

“After the dust settled,” he recalled. “I shouted down up the coal face to my mates — there was no answer.”

At 1.05pm, the Mines Rescue Station at Dinas was alerted. Roy Hamer, an official in the nearby Lewis Merthyr Colliery and a part-time rescue brigade man, was one of those called out. Wearing breathing apparatus, he and five others, were sent straight underground to inspect the length of the supply road to the coalface and back.

They went to look for survivors and mark accurately where the casualties were lying.

He later recalled how they identified the dead: “We would gently turn the person so as to pick up his lamp number on his lamp battery ... on returning to the surface they would know exactly where everybody was and be able to match lamp numbers with names.”

Trevor Ward was an underground haulage engine driver on the afternoon shift.

About two o’clock he was asked to go down the pit, not to work but to bring up the bodies.

Another volunteer was John Benbow. “There were bodies everywhere,” he said.

“They had died in the positions they were working: standing up, kneeling or bending.”

Each body was placed on a stretcher and into drams, the wagons that usually carried coal to the surface. Each body was accompanied by a man standing in respect.

Five and a half hours later, John Benbow came back to the surface. “I remember the television cameras being there but I also remember the Salvation Army giving out hot drinks, sandwiches and cigarettes. Although I’m not religiously inclined — in fact I’m an atheist — I’ll always give money to the Salvation Army.”

Bill Richards, former official at Cambrian, was on the surface when the bodies were brought up. Despite whispers of many fatalities, he was not prepared for seeing the convoy of 31 stretchers covered in bound blankets.

He later saw the funerals and the men walking in silence. “You’d see these big, strong men and you’d see the tears in their eyes.”

The next day, after all the casualties had been recovered and the pit made safe, Denzil Pennington was among the men sent underground to survey the coalface after the explosion. He remembers seeing the reflector of a cap lamp embedded deeply in a timber support, showing how powerful the blast must have been.

“The feeling in the pit was weird,” he recalled. “People were stunned as Cambrian wasn’t regarded as a particularly gassy pit. In my view it was one of those things that shouldn’t have happened. Production was important but not as important as human lives.”

The official inquiry, two months later, found that a build-up of gas had been ignited where electricians were working. The disaster, it said, was due to “poor pit practice”.

A year after the explosion, Cambrian Colliery closed. But the memories remain.

Saturday 18 October 2014

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/welsh-history-month-tragedy-cambrian-7951304

continue reading