Demo: EApp: Improving Rural Emergency Preparedness and Response

Large-scale emergencies, both natural and man-made, are increasingly incurring devastating losses in terms of infrastructure and human lives. Rural areas, with their unique socio-economic structure, are particularly vulnerable to such losses. Emergency preparedness and response in rural areas severely lags behind that of their urban counterparts. One of the key limiting factors is the lack of adequate broadband connectivity, which limits agencies' capabilities to (i) disseminate emergency preparedness and response information to residents and (ii) efficiently coordinate in the face of a disaster. In this demo, we will present the EApp; a smartphone application that strives to improve the information access regarding emergencies for rural residents and first responders.