In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Earlier in the week, I did a post on a terrific new paper, “A Vision for Technology-Mediated Support for Public Participation & Assistance in Mass Emergencies & Disasters” by researchers from the University of Colorado and University of California as part of the Project EPIC initiative. The focus of the paper is the role of technology in improving public preparedness and response, but I also separately wanted to briefly mention its first footnote explaining the use of the word “citizen”:

We use ―citizens and ― members of the public interchangeably to support readability, though the latter is the most accurate term. When readability allows, we privilege ―members of the public in acknowledgement that not all people who are affected by emergencies and other disruptions are accorded national citizenship. In fact, vulnerable populations, which include non-citizens, are disproportionately affected by such situations. Tourists and visitors to foreign countries are also affected by disruptions, and usually have fewer resources for reacting to events than residents.

I have never explicitly clarified the use of “citizen” on my blog, and — as I use the word in practically every post — I probably should have posted a similar note at some point. But what I found particularly interesting about the footnote is the point that “tourists” and “visitors from foreign countries” are often particularly at the center of crises (and have less resources to deal with them). I’ve written about non-citizens living in the U.S. but had never thought about tourists though I should have, because:

1) it stares me right in the face every year when I distribute ReadyNY preparedness guides to tourists in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle on “National Night Out” for CERT, and

2) even more recently, the The Times Square bombing attempt is a perfect example of a crisis situation in which many of the people at the site were from out of town which has implications for the response/evacuation. Similar situations are likely going forward as many potential terror targets are also often places where tourists are apt to be. The fact is that many folks in the direct area of an incident do not know the environs or the usual information sources  and have not been exposed to any type of local preparedness/response messaging. That’s an important element to think about when it comes to public disaster response. And until reading the EPIC paper this week I really hadn’t.

Tourists and locals behind police barriers in Times Square after the attempting bombing there (credit: Daily News)