The Fire and Disaster Management Agency plans this summer to test a disaster warning system using Internet-based social-networking services, drawing lessons from the March 2011 catastrophe when telephone services were cut and the emergency number did not function, agency officials said Tuesday.
The system, which will be based on a major disaster, will tap into the Internet, which is more accessible than telephone lines in times of disaster, and help in mobilizing prompter assistance, the officials said.
The test will simulate people caught up in disasters using their computers or mobile phones to summon for help via such sites as Twitter and Japan's social-networking site mixi, the officials said.