Chennai Floods and Cloud Telephony emergency number in natural disaster

By srssethuraman | December 16, 2015 | 0 Comment

 

Is it mere coincidence that Chennai is facing worst ever floods, when all the world leaders have gathered in Paris to discuss and tackle global warming?

The catastrophic flood in Chennai has severely impacted normal life, train services and airport were shut down. The electric and telecommunication services have not been functioning. In this situation, the only channel of communication that has worked are the emergency contact numbers or Toll free numbers provided by the Government or the Local Municipal Corporation.

Due to global warming and many other reasons, these sort of disasters have become very frequent. Within a year we have had floods in Kashmir, cyclone Hudhud in Visakhapatnam, cyclone and flood in Gujarat.  Looking at this scenario, it is becoming very essential that all city corporations should be geared to handle such catastrophic situations.

During such disasters, the 24×7 emergency contact numbers, play a very critical role in disaster management. Such numbers provide immediate help to the affected citizens, and also make the disaster recovery more effective.

Some of the key things that the city corporations or any such authority should consider while offering an emergency service numbers are:

• 24/7 service: It should be working 24×7, even when there is no electricity
• Track Missed Calls: No calls should be missed and the system should be able to track all calls
• Call Recording: All calls should be recorded, in case any call gets missed due to high traffic volume, the affected person should be called back. The call recording makes the system more effective as the nature of the emergency and the service required can be known
• Fewer numbers to Call: The service should have fewer numbers so that it’s easy to remember.   Having too many numbers to call, only adds to chaos and confusion. People don’t understand what number to call in a given situation.
• Single number for all districts: If many districts/towns are affected, then the authorities should try to provide a common number for all the districts/towns, each district/town can be differentiated by their respective area code.
• Ability to monitor the emergency service: To ascertain that emergency number is properly working, the service needs to be continuously monitored. Technology enables the authorities to listen and interrupt any ongoing call.
• Easy Transfer and Conference: This feature helps   the concerned authorities to get immediately connected to the callers & take necessary action.

The emergency numbers just streamline the communication process during such disasters and ensure that help reaches in a timely and effective manner to the affected citizens.

If we really want to stop such natural disasters, we have to seriously think about “Global Warming”.

The disaster in Chennai and UN meeting on global warming in Paris, is not a mere coincidence, it is also an emergency call or alert from nature.

 

Courtesy : Ozonetel PVT LTD

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