Technology's pipeline is lifeline
SAN FRANCISCO -- Technology is proving crucial as Southern California residents fight raging wildfires.
They're using text messages, video, blogs, Google maps and databases to describe the chaos, find missing people and share strategies.
Despite fears of an overload, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon said their cellphone networks were working fairly well. Some cell towers were affected by fire or power outages. But cell companies have learned to re-route network resources during such a crisis, Sprint spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy said.
Sprint experienced congestion along highways packed with evacuees and at the huge shelter at Qualcomm Stadium. Verizon's traffic jumped about 38% across Southern California. About 4% of AT&T's network in the San Diego area was down. Calls were generally going through, the companies said.
Meanwhile, residents were deploying other technologies, including:
•Text messaging. Since emergency personnel asked residents to limit cellphone use, Kim Nguyen, 28, an accountant from San Diego, relied on texts to keep track of displaced friends.
The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the University of San Diego (USD) used emergency text-message systems to blast updates to students, faculty and others. It was the first time USD used the system, which alerted nearly 10,000 people classes were canceled.
KPBS, a radio and TV station in San Diego, offered frequent fire updates via Twitter, a popular website that blasts information to subscriber's text-message or e-mail accounts.
•Streaming audio and video. USD senior Shelby Holliday, 21, produced two news videos about the fire's impact on fellow students, then posted them on the video-sharing site YouTube.
By Tuesday, YouTube users had posted at least 142 fire videos. Some were news reports that originally aired on CNN. Others were created by users, including one shot from a speeding car showing smoke-filled skies along a highway.
Employees at software developer InfoStreet don't have cable TV at their office about 30 miles west of Los Angeles, so they are watching live news coverage on the website of KNBC, Channel 4, in the company's conference room.
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