Communications in the Aftermath of a Major Earthquake: Bringing Science to Citizens to Promote Recovery

Abstract

In the immediate and early aftermath of a geological disaster, one major goal of communications by geoscientists should be to provide information that will help those impacted make safe and healthy behavioral choices. This requires moving from answers geared exclusively to the domain of physical science and embracing the art and science of risk and crisis communication. The messages should provide a sense of safety, calming, self-and community efficacy, connectedness, and hope. This paper suggests ideas and strategies drawn from the literature of disaster communications and from our own personal experience. We also propose a model draft message to be delivered in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake disaster.

Citizen Seismology Without Seismologists? Lessons Learned From Mayotte Leading to Improved Collaboration

“…Therefore, geoscientists need to investigate both fields when communicating with the public. Lamontagne and Flynn (2014) have already shown that in the aftermath of earthquakes, geoscientists have a key role to play in communication. They can contribute to reduce anxiety and promote recovery by sending messages that "provide a sense of safety, calming, self-and community efficacy, connectedness, and hope" (Lamontagne and Flynn, 2014).…”

“…Scientists thus have a key role to play, along with the authorities, in order to provide the reasons why the information is not available. Research takes time and citizens may not realize it, especially under high level of anxiety (Lamontagne and Flynn, 2014). Misinformation after a disaster or during a crisis is likely to spread and social media constitutes one of the ways (though not the only one) which it quickly expands (Keim and Noji, 2011;Rajdev and Lee, 2015).…”

Rapid Public Information and Situational Awareness After the November 26, 2019, Albania Earthquake: Lessons Learned From the LastQuake System

“…Although it will not be a panacea, such a document made rapidly and widely available after destructive earthquakes in an easyto-understand format could contribute to reducing unnecessary confusion and anxiety among the population at a time of high emotional state. This communication issue about prediction is part of a wider effort in seismology to adapt rapid direct public communication to time-varying hazard products, such as aftershock forecast or earthquake early warning (e.g., Jordan et al, 2014;Lamontagne and Flynn, 2014;Wein et al, 2016;Allen et al, 2018;Allen and Melgar, 2019;McBride et al, 2020) in a consistent way.…”

“…Our analysis of the efficacy of the LastQuake system has been derived from qualitative analysis of exchanges on the @LastQuake Twitter timeline and from information collected through the LastQuake smartphone app. Although this reveals only a partial picture, we still believe that there are important lessons here to be learned for the scientific community and for emergency managers in order to exploit the potential of social media for reducing anxiety levels in the population and for seismologists to be better prepared for the recurrent tricky questions that arise about future seismic activity after a damaging earthquake (e.g., Lamontagne and Flynn, 2014;Wein et al, 2016).…”

Preventing and debunking earthquake misinformation: Insights into EMSC's practices

“…This includes communication on what information is available at what time, with what level of certainty, and what are the risks for the population (Dallo et al, 2022). To be efficient, this information must be tailored to the public in terms of content, format, and medium (Lamontagne and Flynn, 2014). Communication decreases anxiety during crises, while anxiety is an aggravating factor in the spread of misinformation (Fearn-Banks, 2016).…”