The text message that robbed Ghanaians of sleep
The text message that robbed Ghanaians of sleep
February 03, 2010
Accra, Feb. 3, GNA - It was not a good news at all for Madam Mary Akosua Darkwaa, a 63-year-old trader at Abesim, near Sunyani, to wake up in the middle of the night to receive a call from his son, who rang from Koforidua to alert her to vacate her room due to news of an impending earthquake.
She told the Ghana News Agency at Abesim on Monday January 18, that with shock and panic she called to inform other relatives and friends to follow her good example.
A content analysis of media reports of the earthquake scare is full of similar feeling of concern among Ghanaians to pass the false news from person to persons.
Mindful of the Haiti harrowing experience, the wild rumours that were sparked on Sunday night sent tens of thousands of panic stricken Ghanaians into the streets and the open where many spent the night.
Throughout the night, Ghanaians spread the rumours using text messages, mobile and fixed line phones calls to warn their friends and relatives, who reacted by knocking on doors and shouting out to other people to come out of their rooms to avoid the looming disaster.
Reports from the Central Region indicated that people could be heard praying to God to avert the quake.
A public servant told the GNA on condition of anonymity in Cape Coast that she was so scared that when her five-year old child asked to be taken indoors to attend to nature's call, she refused to do so.
Mr George Senaya, a student of the University of Education, Winneba, said as a Christian he knew that disasters like earthquakes are to be expected in the end times.
Despite the panic created, there were others who either did not hear or just ignored the alarm as illogical and a scam.
The incident, however, ensured punctuality to work and school as people woke up much earlier than they normally did.
The original rumour, cited the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the British Broadcasting Corporation as the source, but these have proved unfounded.
The Ministry of Information dropped a reassuring statement dispelling reports that an earthquake will be hitting parts of Ghana.
The Director of the Geological Survey Department, Mr John Agyei Duodu, urged the national security operatives to investigate the source of the rumours, fish out the brains behind it and deal with them to serve as a deterrent.
Mr Duodu said persons, who circulated the rumour, must have done it out of mischief to create fear.
Speaking to the GNA in Accra, Mr Duodu said the Department had its laid down procedures of circulating information to prevent unnecessary panic.
Mr Duodu said although the nation was not considered as an earthquake prone zone in the world it had had its fair share of earthquakes.
Giving the catalogue of the earthquake calendar of the country, Mr Duodu said there had been damaging earthquakes in 1615; 1636; 1862; 1906 and 1939. The one recorded in 1615, for example, destroyed Takoradi.
In 1636, an earthquake occurred in Axim and the whole of East Nzema was badly shaken. It caused widespread collapse of buildings in that area.
The 1939 earthquake in Ghana, which registered 6.5 on the Richter scale, took the lives of 17 people and property worth one million British pounds were destroyed.
Additionally, the country had experienced earthquakes in 1997 and 2003 with the most recent being in 2005. Continued
February 03, 2010
Accra, Feb. 3, GNA - It was not a good news at all for Madam Mary Akosua Darkwaa, a 63-year-old trader at Abesim, near Sunyani, to wake up in the middle of the night to receive a call from his son, who rang from Koforidua to alert her to vacate her room due to news of an impending earthquake.
She told the Ghana News Agency at Abesim on Monday January 18, that with shock and panic she called to inform other relatives and friends to follow her good example.
A content analysis of media reports of the earthquake scare is full of similar feeling of concern among Ghanaians to pass the false news from person to persons.
Mindful of the Haiti harrowing experience, the wild rumours that were sparked on Sunday night sent tens of thousands of panic stricken Ghanaians into the streets and the open where many spent the night.
Throughout the night, Ghanaians spread the rumours using text messages, mobile and fixed line phones calls to warn their friends and relatives, who reacted by knocking on doors and shouting out to other people to come out of their rooms to avoid the looming disaster.
Reports from the Central Region indicated that people could be heard praying to God to avert the quake.
A public servant told the GNA on condition of anonymity in Cape Coast that she was so scared that when her five-year old child asked to be taken indoors to attend to nature's call, she refused to do so.
Mr George Senaya, a student of the University of Education, Winneba, said as a Christian he knew that disasters like earthquakes are to be expected in the end times.
Despite the panic created, there were others who either did not hear or just ignored the alarm as illogical and a scam.
The incident, however, ensured punctuality to work and school as people woke up much earlier than they normally did.
The original rumour, cited the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the British Broadcasting Corporation as the source, but these have proved unfounded.
The Ministry of Information dropped a reassuring statement dispelling reports that an earthquake will be hitting parts of Ghana.
The Director of the Geological Survey Department, Mr John Agyei Duodu, urged the national security operatives to investigate the source of the rumours, fish out the brains behind it and deal with them to serve as a deterrent.
Mr Duodu said persons, who circulated the rumour, must have done it out of mischief to create fear.
Speaking to the GNA in Accra, Mr Duodu said the Department had its laid down procedures of circulating information to prevent unnecessary panic.
Mr Duodu said although the nation was not considered as an earthquake prone zone in the world it had had its fair share of earthquakes.
Giving the catalogue of the earthquake calendar of the country, Mr Duodu said there had been damaging earthquakes in 1615; 1636; 1862; 1906 and 1939. The one recorded in 1615, for example, destroyed Takoradi.
In 1636, an earthquake occurred in Axim and the whole of East Nzema was badly shaken. It caused widespread collapse of buildings in that area.
The 1939 earthquake in Ghana, which registered 6.5 on the Richter scale, took the lives of 17 people and property worth one million British pounds were destroyed.
Additionally, the country had experienced earthquakes in 1997 and 2003 with the most recent being in 2005. Continued
