(compiled from news reports 1-14-10)
The earthquake that decimated Haiti knocked out about half of the country’s international communication links. Haiti has about 20 connections running out of the country—by satellite, overland routes through the neighboring Dominican Republic and one fiber link connected to the capital, Port-au-Prince. Two of those were down entirely, and eight were damaged and not operating properly, according to an analysis by Renesys Corp., a network-security company in Manchester, N.H.
Social-media Web sites were put to the test by the disaster. Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., as in past crises both political and natural, were swamped with messages and photos. Carel Pedre, a deejay and television personality in Haiti, has been regularly updating his Twitter feed, including with images of cars crushed by debris and citizens running from the wreckage in tears.
Mashable reported Wednesday night that Red Cross had already collected more than $1 million for Haiti through their $10 text message donation initiative (text “Haiti” to 90999), which is backed by the U.S. State Department. Relief groups also took to Facebook to report updates about the earthquake, correct misinformation and connect with concerned citizens. “One thing is certain,” Miller wrote, “people turned to social media in droves for their questions about the Haiti earthquake, and many organizations were already there to help.” Here’s how the cable news channels are covering the earthquake. A trending topic on Twitter related to the Haiti disaster is Pat Robertson, who is taking flak for his comments Wednesday that Haiti’s misfortune stems from a pact that nation made with the devil.
