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Real Time Information Could Be Incomplete or Even Biased away from the Most Damaged Areas

During a major earthquake, there will be a great number of seismic sensors triggering at about the same time. The larger the earthquake, the larger the number of seismic alert messages. The most critical messages are the ones least likely to have telecommunication service.

Although the stream of messages would include at least a few from locations close to the epicenter, the majority of trigger messages would probably come from the much larger surrounding area—regions likely to have less damage.

Confronted with the "Big One," decision-makers could be misled: Damage and congestion in the areas most strongly affected by the earthquake are likely to result in a communications brownout or blackout. Of the enormous number of signals seen at the crisis center, those originating in the less-affected zones may predominate. Is this the kind of information emergency rescue teams should base their decisions on?