Disasters are feeling a little personal to me. Last year it was Katrina damaging New Orleans, where I have family and friends. Earlier this year, there was a terrorist incident at a London subway station that my friends in England often use.
Today’s disaster is an earthquake in Hawaii, just 10 miles from my friends who live in Kona.
I’ve been watching non-stop news coverage all afternoon. Twenty-four hour news outlets, webcams, cell phone cameras and the internet make on-the-spot coverage of disasters the norm. Everyone can now be a reporter. There are limited live television operations on the Big Island (most local stations re-broadcast the Honolulu stations), so much of the on-site coverage is coming from citizens on the phone. Because of power outages resulting from a combination of the earthquake and unusually bad weather on the other islands, only one TV station in the whole state of Hawaii is on the air; and CNN is re-broadcasting much of their live coverage.
I haven’t been able to reach my friends yet, but no deaths or serious injuries have been reported so far and I’m optimistic that they are OK (the earthquake happened 8 hours ago as I write this).
A Little Ditty
4 weeks ago
1 comment:
From what I can see, the odds are very good your friends are just fine and it's communication wonkiness responsible for the silence.
Ian
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