Technology Failed Many in Today’s Explosions in Moscow Subway

As many of you already know, earlier today a terrible tragedy happened in Moscow – two explosions in the subway executed by two female suicide bombers and took lives of 38 people (with many still in intensive care of various hospitals so the number will probably increase still in the coming days).

The worst part is that the explosions took place in the morning rush hour when millions of people in Moscow descend to the subway stations heading for their jobs or studies – and one needs to realize that in Moscow with huge rarely ending traffic jams the underground is virtually the only means of public transportation that is reliable and actually can take you just about everywhere around the megalopolis – so it is no wonder the damage done is so huge.

Many signs demonstrated these were terrorist attacks that are not really unusual in Russia because of the long-lasting conflict around the Chechnya region of the country. But no matter how frequently such things happen, they are never less terrifying so the entire country is appalled now.

Normally whenever some event like this one happens, the social media crowd begins to discuss everywhere how the latest and greatest technology tools (Twitter mostly) help us learn all the details much faster than they are reported by traditional media. This time is no exception and in Russia many people relied on Twitter to track news and to learn new devastating details. And while Twitter was perfect as usually to learn everything as soon as it happened, in many ways technology has failed people in Russia (me included) today.

First of all, the mobile carriers in Moscow did not really cope well with heavy loads when everyone began trying to reach their family and friends to make sure they were all right. And pretty soon it became virtually impossible to reach anyone as only one of the three largest carriers provided anything that could be described as a reliable connection – and the other carriers simply left their subscribers without any ways to contact their beloved ones. Of course it is no wonder that panic rapidly took hold of thousands of people given the situation.

Here some of the less traditional communication forms actually helped as people could use instant messaging and email to inform their family and friends about their whereabouts and make sure everyone was alive and well (hopefully for most of the population of the city). But of course given that everyone dialed cell phones, email was not much help.

As some of those reading this blog know, I myself don’t live in Moscow but I have some family members and friends in the capital of the country. So as soon as I heard about the explosions (after my husband sent me a link on Skype that he himself saw on some Russian blog on LiveJournal), I dialed my aunt’s number (fortunately she uses the carrier that survived the overload) to make sure she herself and my cousins were fine.

They were and that was a relief but I still had some friends I was worried about – and the worst part was that for some I did not even have their phone numbers as we only talked on IMs since they moved to Moscow. And of course no one was online this early in the morning. And for some still I had nothing but their ancient cell phone numbers that I quickly sent text messages to hoping to get a reply.

These communication tools helped in the vast majority of the cases and by lunch I knew everyone was safe and well but one friend I have heard nothing from still -and this is something I am worried about. We used to work with her together for a few years before she decided to move to Moscow where she had better prospects for her career – and grew quite good friends in the meanwhile. Whenever I come to Moscow or she visits Novosibirsk, we try to meet for a cup of tea and a lengthy pleasant talk. But now I have not heard from her for a while and began to worry.

I searched my history in Gmail and found her personal and corporate cell phone numbers – but none of those worked. Now what do we do these days when we want to find someone? Of course we head to social networks where these people are likely to be – and this is exactly what I’ve done. Unfortunately this friend is not really a social networking type so I have not found her on any of the three largest social networks where I hoped to find her.

And unfortunately until this very moment I have not heard back from her anywhere I attempted to contact her – but hopefully this will change soon because being realistic I hope nothing bad happens to her personally given that chances of one becoming a victim of terrorists in a huge multi-million people city like Moscow are definitely lower than getting into a car accident or something else more traditional.

But today has definitely taught us all something important: in this tightly interconnected world we all depend a lot on communication tools like cell phones, email, IMs, and social networks and when such tools don’t behave as expected (and it is not surprising when they don’t in extreme conditions), we are all lost without solid chances of getting the information we need the most. And when it comes to such vital information that we can’t get, we don’t really think about how useful Twitter is in getting the latest news about technology or politics.

If you have strong enough nerves, BBC has a collection of photos from today’s tragedy.