Expert Available to Discuss Earthquakes and Communication

Many of us felt the shakes from the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Lebanon, NJ this morning. The emergency alert came to cellular phones in Central New York about an hour and a half later. Lee McKnight, an associate professor in the iSchool at Syracuse University, shared his thoughts on this communication below. If you’d like to schedule an interview with him, please reach out to Vanessa Marquette, media relations specialist, at vrmarque@syr.edu.

McKnight writes: “The Northeast, fresh from experiencing a snowy April Nor’easter pummeling especially New Hampshire and Maine, and causing close to half a million to lose power, had a next shock with the 4.8 earthquake earlier today. Centered in New Jersey, but reportedly felt from Baltimore to Massachusetts, today’s minor rumble was far from the deadly threat Taiwan’s 7.2 quake a few days ago was. The impressive thing in the Taiwan quake was actually how well-built Taiwanese buildings are. Since while more than a thousand people were injured and there were deaths, without Taiwan’s now-strict building codes, the effects would have been far worse.

Which brings us back to the Tewksbury (N.J.) quake. Thankfully New York City, 45 miles away, reported no injuries.

What was noticeable, and alarming from an emergency communications perspective, was how slow authorities were to sound an alarm or send an alert. New York City’s ‘automated’ alert did not come out for more than 30 minutes after the quake, while New York State’s was even slower.

If the situation had been a tornado, or a more extreme quake, the slow official response could have had fatal consequences. Just a few days ago, for example, the Midwest experienced tornadoes and storms – while the National Weather Service itself was knocked off-line; not by the storm but by a hardware failure. The NWS ‘promptly’ restored operations 4 hours later; and announced they hoped to move to the cloud, Congress permitting, in coming years.

There is 1 common lesson: whether it is earthquakes shaking unexpected – or expected- places, Nor’easters, tornadoes.. the list goes on: resilient emergency communication matters. Not just for formal public safety authorities, but for all of us.

If we lost power while feet of snow fell (New Hampshire and Maine, today): how long could we maintain communication? (Never mind staying warm; ok that matters too).

If the Jersey quake was 7.3 and not 4.8…how bad would that have been? For buildings, and for emergency communication? (I shudder to imagine)

Whether we are worrying about emergency communication in a live emergency, or preparing for the future, considering our own vulnerabilities to disruptions, and the digital public infrastructure that we rely on today, whether National Weather Service, or state or city emergency services, or for our own daily digital needs: of you are not concerned, you are not paying attention.

We at Syracuse University have been paying attention.

We developed and evolved the Internet Backpack, which sustainably maintains connectivity anywhere on the planet, indefinitely; one way or another.

That matters to the 2.6 billion still off the Internet, even on a good day; and  to all of us, who might experience a need to receive or send emergency communications and obtain emergency connectivity, at any time; anywhere.”