Survivor registry
Encyclopedia
A survivor registry is a list of survivors of a disaster
. This assists families and acquaintances in re-establishing contact, after they have been separated
by the disruption caused by the disaster.
.
disaster in 1949. Survivors of the Hurricane Katrina
disaster also registered with the Red Cross to help notify their friends and family.
, many telephone lines and transmission facilities were disrupted. Computer programmer and science fiction
writer William Shunn
was in Queens
nearby. At about 11:30 a.m. on September 11, in response to a friend's emailed suggestion that he maintain and circulate a list of acquaintances he had heard from thus far, Shunn posted the names of people he knew were okay on his personal web site and began sending the URL
to other friends. Keeping the list up-to-date proved difficult, as more emails flooded in than he could handle. He quickly developed a simple database and form submission system so that visitors to the site could post their own names to the list. This automated system debuted at around 1:00 p.m. that afternoon.
Meanwhile, a crew of programmers at the University of California, Berkeley
with vastly superior resources were working on a similar concept. Their survivor registry went online at about 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. While Shunn's site foundered and eventually crashed under the heavy load of submissions, the Berkeley site ran on a huge computer cluster, and for the next several days stood out as the most robust and accurate of the many survivor registries that followed.
One problem that plagued the survivor registries was that of inaccurate information. So many entries listed actual victims as being okay that Berkeley eventually implemented a system that used cross-checks to gauge the accuracy of the information received.
The grassroots generation of survivor registries led many people to wonder why the Federal government did not have such a system already in place. Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) has since discussed plans for official survivor registries in the future.
Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...
. This assists families and acquaintances in re-establishing contact, after they have been separated
by the disruption caused by the disaster.
Holocaust
There are several databases of survivors of the Nazi genocide of Jewish people during WWII. One of these is the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Holocaust Survivors which is now part of the United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
.
Red Cross
The Red Cross established a register of survivors of the SS NoronicSS Noronic
The SS Noronic was a passenger ship that was destroyed by fire in Toronto Harbour in September 1949 with serious loss of life.-The ship:SS Noronic was launched June 2, 1913 in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada...
disaster in 1949. Survivors of the Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
disaster also registered with the Red Cross to help notify their friends and family.
World Trade Center
Following the destruction of the World Trade CenterWorld Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, many telephone lines and transmission facilities were disrupted. Computer programmer and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer William Shunn
William Shunn
William Shunn is a science fiction writer and computer programmer. He was raised in a Latter-day Saint household, the oldest of eight children. He attended the Clarion Workshop in 1985...
was in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
nearby. At about 11:30 a.m. on September 11, in response to a friend's emailed suggestion that he maintain and circulate a list of acquaintances he had heard from thus far, Shunn posted the names of people he knew were okay on his personal web site and began sending the URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
to other friends. Keeping the list up-to-date proved difficult, as more emails flooded in than he could handle. He quickly developed a simple database and form submission system so that visitors to the site could post their own names to the list. This automated system debuted at around 1:00 p.m. that afternoon.
Meanwhile, a crew of programmers at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
with vastly superior resources were working on a similar concept. Their survivor registry went online at about 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. While Shunn's site foundered and eventually crashed under the heavy load of submissions, the Berkeley site ran on a huge computer cluster, and for the next several days stood out as the most robust and accurate of the many survivor registries that followed.
One problem that plagued the survivor registries was that of inaccurate information. So many entries listed actual victims as being okay that Berkeley eventually implemented a system that used cross-checks to gauge the accuracy of the information received.
The grassroots generation of survivor registries led many people to wonder why the Federal government did not have such a system already in place. Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
(FEMA) has since discussed plans for official survivor registries in the future.