Israel Turns to Internet During Earthquake, Terrorism

Israel News Agency ^ | February 11, 2004 | Israel News Agency

[IsraelBeach]

Israel Turns to Internet During Earthquake, Terrorism

By Israel News Agency Staff

Jerusalem----February 11.....At 10:15 this morning, as many Israelis were sitting in their offices and homes working on their computers, keyboards and mice started to move. In fact, entire offices started to sway as Israel was being hit by a 5.0 earthquake.

Immediately Israelis turned to the Net to get information. Israelis, who were accustomed for years to having small portable radios clued to their ears, now click into URL's after terror attacks and other major events that shake this part of the world.

Not every desk has a radio or TV set, so entering Internet chat rooms and news sites was the easiest and sometimes the only manner of securing information on today's earthquake.

"Did you feel that," one subject header read. "What was that," another replied. Slowly the word "earthquake" began to emerge, but the extent of the damage was still unknown.

"As a news reporter, I am one of the first to upload news and news alerts of terrorism and major political events," said one journalist in Tel Aviv. "But if it's between escaping the ceiling falling on my head or getting out a story, I choose to file a story later than sooner in this case," he said.

Israel was lucky today. There were no reports of major damage caused by the quake that originated just north of Israel's Dead Sea. Rather many Israelis entered hospitals suffering from stress related ailments. The 25 second moderate tremor was felt throughout all of Israel - from Eilat to Metulla.

One Israeli Internet group located in Ra'anana, Israel groups.yahoo.com/group/newraanana was among the first to start transmitting emergency news alerts. Then came announcements from the Ra'anana City Hall informing residents to use their Website for emergency procedures. This was then followed up by an extensive article written by a local Israel psychologist on how to cope with the earthquake.

Israel has the most extensive use of the Internet out of all Mid-Eastern nations. Of Israel's population of seven million, over 2 million people are on-line daily.

"At the end of the day, I suspect that we will all go back to selling cars, talking about computer viruses and discussing the latest method used by the city to clean up dog poop," one Internet writer said. "We are all to familiar with traumatic situations here in Israel and we know exactly where to get our news and share critical information on the Net. Our local governments have performed very well today, but then again they have had a lot of training for this morning's vibrations."

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[lilylangtree]

When a major event occurs, I think most people turn to the internet. The internet gets so much usage explains why money-grubbing, high-spending, good-for-nothing politicians want to place a tax on its usage.