Earthquake rapid loss assessment using communication systems to improve resilience of emergency responders

Emergency management and building loss assessment are the next steps after the first emergency response to recover from extreme events like an earthquake that threatens life, property, operations, or the environment. Emergency responders now have access to many different social media tools such as smart phones, high-speed internet, and "cloud" computing, to name only a few examples that have the potential to improve the way they do their jobs, allowing for near-instantaneous exchanges of information. Social media can help people in different communities and locations collaborate in new ways. While social media tools offer the potential for improving emergency management, public organizations such as emergency authorities may not fully understand how these tools can help them. Since the use of smart phones is becoming more and more spread among the population, its utilization within the field reconnaissance has been proposed in this paper. The application can be run by residents on smart phones and has been recently and tested during 2014 Napa Valley Earthquake in California. The application gives an initial damage evaluation of the area, which is going to be very useful when the number of inspectors is limited. The application is freely available both in the Apple store for iOS users and in the Google store for the Android users. Potential uses, recommendations, and limitations are also presented.