Home
Others
Others News
Novel Blackberry alerts for Philippine disasters

Novel Blackberry alerts for Philippine disasters

By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 11 June 2012 15:50 IST

Highlights

A Philippine charity said on Monday that it had launched a novel early warning system for disaster-prone areas using Blackberry devices and laptops.

A Philippine charity said on Monday that it had launched a novel early warning system for disaster-prone areas using Blackberry devices and laptops.

The devices are hooked to a text message system that would immediately alert the communities to typhoons, storm surges, tsunamis, landslides and earthquakes, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) said.

The 200,000-dollar project was carried outwith the World Bank and one of the country's leading mobile phone operators, said PBSP, which is funded by the country's top chief executives.

The areas covered by the project are all in Southern Leyte province in the central Visayas region, which lies along a fault line and is also often battered by powerful typhoons.

"The province was chosen (for the project) being one of the country's top 10 provinces highly prone to natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, storm surges, landslides, earthquakes, and typhoons," it said in a statement.

In 2006, heavy rain triggered a deadly mudslide that buried the entire village of Guinsaugon in Southern Leyte, killing more 1,000 people in one of the country's worst natural disasters of recent years.

The deaths were blamed on a lack of proper seismic and weather equipment and an alert system that could have immediately led to a mass evacuation.

The project's web-based information system enables officials from the towns to use BlackBerries and laptops to access and quickly spread alerts or store surveillance data, before, during and after disasters.

The Philippines is considered among the world's most vulnerable countries to natural disasters.

It sits on the Pacific's earthquake and volcano belt, and is battered by an average of 20 typhoons a year.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Blackberry, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), earthquakes, landslides, storm surges, tsunamis, typhoons, warning system

Nokia says events in Japan will disrupt product supply

'Worst song ever' tops 30 million YouTube views

Novel Blackberry alerts for Philippine disasters

Related Stories