Journal of Public Health in Africa 2012 ; volume 3:e14 Earthquake hoax in Ghana: pied the minds of many as they fled their houses, apartments and tenements.2 A text Correspondence: Ishmael D. Norman, exploration of the Cry Wolf message is reported to have initiated the Department of Biological, Environmental & hypothesis hoax. The message had predicted that an Occupational Health, School of Public Health, earthquake was about to hit the country and University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 13, Legon, 1 2 Ishmael D. Norman, Moses Aikins, advised people to stay out of their rooms to Accra, Ghana. Fred Binka3 avoid being killed by collapsing buildings. The Mobile: +233.243.201410. 1Department of Biological, Environmental message quoted the National Aeronautical E-mail: [email protected] & Occupational Health; 2Health Policy Space Agency, (NASA) and the British 2 Key words: earthquake, false alarm, crisis risk Planning and Management, SPH. U of G; Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC) as sources. Although in the immediate aftermath of this communication, emergency preparedness. 3School of Public Health, University of event, the authorities took action to reassure Ghana Legon, Accra, Ghana Conflict of interest: the authors have no conflicts the public and to provide them with counter of interests. information that there had been no earth- quake in Ghana at that time, there was no fol- Contributions: IDN, manuscript first drafting and low-up on the perceptions and attitudes of the revising; MA, manuscript revising; FB, research Abstract residents towards subsequent risk informa- instrument concept and design and manuscript tion on emergency or health promotion. This revising. This paper investigated the belief of the study investigated if a person would believe news of impending earthquake from any news of an impending earthquake from any Received for publication: 19 September 2011. source in the context of the Cry Wolf hypothe- source in the context of the Cry Wolf hypoth- Revision received: 24 November 2011. Accepted for publication: 25 December 2011. sis as well as the belief of the news of any esis. Additionally, we evaluated if a person other imminent disaster from any source. We would believe news of any other impending This work is licensed under a Creative Commons were also interested in the correlation disaster from any source in order to assess Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY- between preparedness, risk perception and the public’s reaction to subsequent risk com- NC 3.0). antecedents. This explorative study consisted munication. This would inform policy on risk of interviews, literature and Internet reviews. reduction, intervention and risk communica- ©Copyright I.D. Norman et al., 2012 Licensee PAGEPress, Italy Sampling was of a simple random nature. tion. Journal of Public Health in Africa 2012; 3:e14 Stratification was carried out by sex and resi- Set against what appears, as irrational fear doi:10.4081/jphia.2012.e14 dence type. The sample size of (N=400), con- of earthquakes in Ghana is the fact that sisted of 195 males and 205 Females. Further Ghana sits on earthquake fault line. Ghana stratification was based on residential classifi- has not experienced an earthquake in the last cation used by the municipalities. The study 60 years though tremors are periodically rat- since the 1994 Stadium disaster where 124 revealed that a person would believe news of tling the residents along the coastal belt. persons died. Social capitals are better spent an impending earthquake from any source, Historically, Accra and the nearby coastal on plausible threats than on the imagined.1 (64.4%) and a model significance of areas have experienced four seriously damag- The panic experienced by the population on (P=0.000). It also showed that a person would ing earthquakes on Richter magnitude of the day of the hoax could be attributable to believe news of any other impending disaster about 6 during the last 400 years. The signif- the lack of a national risk communication from any source, (73.1%) and a significance of icant ones were in 1858, 1863, 1883, 1907, mechanism. In crisis risk communication, (P=0.003). There is association between back- 1911, 1918, 1923, 1925, 1930, and 1933-35. the lack of trust and credibility for the com- ground, risk perception and preparedness. The major ones were 1635, 1862, 1906 and municator can devalue the importance of the Emergency preparedness is weak. Earthquake 1939. The most destructive earthquake that message and increase the residents’ expo- awareness needs to be re-enforced. There is a struck the then Gold Coast, (Ghana) and sure to the threat.6-10 It is important to note critical need for public education of earth- caused a lot of damage, loss of life and prop- that previous researchers have also shown quake preparedness. The authors recommend erty, was on the 2nd June 1939.3,4 In 1939, sev- that public reliance on official warnings is developing emergency response program for enteen people were killed and one hundred shifting from traditional sources to more pri- earthquakes, standard operating procedures and thirty three injured. Its magnitude was vate and informal sources. The use of instant for a national risk communication through all 6.5 on the Richter scale. In more recent times, bulk messaging as a means of communica- media including instant bulk messaging. earthquakes and strong tremors some with tion is one of such new sources of informa- magnitude of 4.9 on the Richter scale have tion to the public. been experienced in 1964, 1969, 1979, 1985, This is particularly so in low-income coun- 1995, and 1997.4 However, Ghana's exposure tries, where access to the World Wide Web is Introduction to earthquake is modest considering that the difficult for the most vulnerable. Those in the peak ground acceleration is only likely to be vulnerable group, women and children, those Irrational fear has the same deleterious exceeded with a 10% chance in 50 year time in the semi-urban areas, small farming com- effects on the human body as heart attack, in terms of seismic activity on the probabilis- munities and villages do not enjoy constant stroke and depression.1 When rumors of an tic seismic hazard map of Africa and the radio and television re-diffusion services, due earthquake hit Ghana late Sunday night, 17th Middle East.5 Despite the apparent assurance, to frequent power outages and breaks in January, 2010 at about 3:00 am GMT, it it is generally believed among the residents transmission.8-9,11 Atwood and Major, (1998) prompted millions of residents of diverse that the country is long overdue for a big noted that individuals who have experienced demographics, and in both urban and rural earthquake. This snapshot of earthquakes in predictions of disaster that did not material- communities onto the streets. The aftermath Ghana provides the backdrop for the reaction ize will discount the validity of a subsequent of the Haitian quake seen on national and of the residents to the earthquake hoax. emergency warning. They also concluded that international television stations, pre-occu- Ghana has not had a mass casualty event the media are substantial contributors to the [page 52] [Journal of Public Health in Africa 2012; 3:e14] Article observed false alarm effect. Much of the liter- ature discussed the reaction of populations in Materials and Methods Field research the industrialized nations.1,9-14 Quarantelli however argued that individuals The method used for this baseline, explo- Study population and sample size do not panic in disasters. He further sustained rative study consisted of questionnaire survey estimation the position that if they do, the effect is not and internet review. The literature review was The study was conducted in the West long lasting. That position was not supported by done searching relevant books and journals other researchers such as Green and Lindsay, African nation of Ghana in 2011. There are ten and from websites using keywords like cry wolf (10) administrative regions in Ghana, which and Miller.15-17 Many other researchers had not hypothesis, risk communication and source are divided into a total of 138 metropolitan, only disagreed with the position of the former, credibility, earthquake hoax and emergency but agreed with the latter that, indeed, individ- municipal and district assemblies. The study preparedness. The national Disaster and was carried out in the Greater Accra Region uals do panic in emergencies. In addition, they Emergency preparedness plan of 1997 and also suffer post traumatic stress disorder and with Accra as its capital (this is also the largest other related national documents were ana- 1,16,17 city and capital of Ghana). The Greater Accra other deleterious health outcomes. It was lyzed to determine how those have collectively also contended that in certain cases people do Region has two (2) metropolitan areas, six (6) prepared the communities with basic earth- learn from false alarm and are not less willing municipal areas and two (2) district assem- quake survival skills. Evaluation of the legal to respond to the next warning although, for blies. However the two (2) metropolitan areas framework on disaster risk reduction and risk example, in the Boulder, Colorado wildfires of and three (3) of the municipalities were con- 2002, it was found that previous false alarm did management was undertaken to assess the sidered in the sample selection due to their influence a considerable number of the resi- mandate for intervention given to the main close proximity, high population densities and dents in responding to subsequent alarms.18,19 coordinating agency for disasters and emer- also because communities found in these This study investigated if any of the reactions gencies with particular emphasis on Act 517 of areas represent both the indigenes and also observed in the populations of the industrial- 1996.