Emergent communication networks during disaster: an app for that.

Inadequate communication repeatedly challenges disaster response, with subsequent adverse effects on coordination. However, emergent cooperative behaviors, including collaborative groups, social links, and social networks, have long been recognized as normative disaster developments. These behaviors are facilitated by existing precrisis social relationships. For example, in 1965, Hurricane Betsy’s destruction of telephone lines disabled the US Weather Service office in New Orleans. It was unable to issue weather bulletins, contact other weather station offices, and fulfill its warning functions. A local amateur radio club, exploiting a patchwork of existing radio groups, achieved contact with the office in Baton Rouge, establishing a novel social linkage and network.