Clear, Timely & Controlled Communication Can Condense Earthquake Fatality Toll: Suggest Experts

Right and quick modes of communication are still a matter of challenge for scientists and specialists across the world. Up to now, the communication mode through which risks and other crucial information regarding earthquake can be transmitted to the people is far-flung and introduction of such a precise, quick, and right method of communication can condense the death toll caused by earthquake, suggest a new study published in a journal of a National Communication Association publication.

Communicating ‘before, during, and after’ the period earthquake plays the most pivotal role, and since long it has been a major challenge for scientists. Yet the arrival of right messages at the right time is far-flung from reality. The introduction of such a system can and will save hundreds of lives, say the scholars of the U.S. Communication in their recently published article, appeared in the Journal of Applied Communication Research. In the paper, researchers give more emphasis on the importance of communication for the reduction of death numbers, attributable to the earthquake.

As highlighted by the study paper, scientists should give more realistic focus to the development of a communicative tool that will ensure that public get understandable, timely, and appropriate information on risk regarding the earthquake. Moreover, the study also marked that, the communicational system should also be able to deliver the details of the potential actions the rescuers should take to protect people as well as themselves during the natural calamity.

According to Deanna Sellnow, a Communication Professor at the University of Central Florida, “How and what scientists converse to each other and the public during seismic activities and tremors can abolish the risks, chaos, and mystifications throughout the natural catastrophe. The biggest problem is that no scientists are able to make precise forecast regarding the earthquake including when, where and how the next earthquake will hit and what will be its intensity. Instead, they often put forward ‘probabilistic forecasting’ following the seismic clustering, which later results in chaos and confusion during the real event.”

However, the establishment of an advanced and powerful communication system that can transmit right and timely information about the natural disaster can save millions of life and also reduce the earthquake death toll, said the researchers.

The study shows the realistic approach of scientists towards delivering right information about the natural calamity.