The Civil Defense is using social media to send flood and weather warnings and receive messages from citizens and residents needing help as heavy rain continues to lash parts of the Kingdom.
Col. Abdullah Al-Harithi, spokesman for the Civil Defense, said the body's pages on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were used to post real-time images of a number of flooded areas and onsite rescue operations. “A large number of citizens saw these images, and we received many reports from people who were trapped in some locations. It helped us save them,” he said.
“There are 24-hour follow-up teams of specialists sending precautionary messages, educational messages and special weather reports. This is all part of our effort to safeguard citizens and residents in the Kingdom. If this type of information was not available, it would not have been possible to help the people concerned. We used this information to dispatch rescue teams to the affected locations. We did receive huge amounts of information that were really helpful to us in our efforts,” he said.
Users of social media sites exchanged warning notices regarding rain and flooded areas. Some pages included real-time images of many streets, intercity and intra-city highways, and side roads. Residents of a number of neighborhoods in Saudi cities sent SOS messages because they were trapped in flooded areas.
Some users complained that some government agencies were not adequately prepared to deal with emergency situations. Others said these incidents show that the Kingdom has poor drainage infrastructure in many areas.
