Tech In Asia :: Last Saturday, Beijing experienced the heaviest rains the city has seen in more than sixty years. The results were devastating: 37 deaths and $1.5 billion in flooding damage. What’s more, there’s the possibility that both of those numbers will rise when the devastation in rural Fangshan district, the hardest-hit area, is more thoroughly assessed.
So why didn’t the Meteorological Bureau send out text warnings to Beijingers beforehand?
It seems like texts would be a remarkably effective method of issuing a warning given that more than 95 percent of Beijingers own mobile phones and people are more likely to check text messages than they are to turn on the radio, watch TV, or look up weather on the web during any given day.
A report by C. Custer, www.techinasia.com
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