When Disaster Strikes

When disaster strikes and cell towers are down, injured people are left like sitting ducks. Francie Diep at Pacific Standard Magazine reported that many people used Twitter to request help during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, and even when people aren’t in danger, they rely on their cell phones to let family and friends know they are safe. The last major earthquake in California was in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1994. Because cell phones weren’t as prevalent as they are now, the towers weren’t much of a concern back then. But nowadays, people rely heavily on their cell phones as the main method of communication. Diep reported, “More than 2,300 cell phone towers [weren’t operational] during the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that hit Sichuan, China, in 2008. As a result, cell service outages lasted weeks. Sichuan’s experience was particularly motivating to American officials because China’s cell tower building standards are similar to America’s, United States Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones told the New York Times.” The Los Angeles City Council voted 11-0 to approve seismic standards for new cell towers, and became the first city in the nation to approve such standards in an effort to strengthen the communications infrastructure in preparation for big earthquake.