Social media users have raised a critical issue amid the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses and that is the ‘inaccessibility’ of emergency hotlines of key government offices.
Almost every list of emergency contact details of government agencies that are circulating contain landline telephone numbers which are demonstrably not accessible to typhoon-hit areas.
This means that these emergency numbers cannot be contacted by those without a landline or whose mobile phones do not have enough regular load.
Due to this glaring gap in disaster response by the government, some individuals and groups have taken the initiative to crowdsource those with the means to call up emergency hotlines on behalf of citizens who are currently stranded and in need of rescue.
Hashtags #RescuePH and #UlyssesPH are flooded with calls for help and assistance as they are left stranded in their homes submerged in floodwaters.
Several cases of stranded families who contacted emergency hotlines report that they cannot be reached, or unresponsive, with some localities citing power interruption or volume of calls.
