superstorm-sandy-nyc-google-crisis-map

We’ve mentioned the Google Crisis Map a number of times – when it came to finding gas, before and after photos of Breezy Point, and general help in navigating the city in an immediate post-Sandy world. They keep adjusting it – adding and subtracting layers  (for instance, the layer having to do with finding gas during the shortage is no longer there) – to keep it current and relevant.

One of the newer layers is the MapMill layer, which has to do with crowdsourcing to analyze images of the still damaged areas, through human eyes. Individuals look at images associated with a certain area, indicate problems and rate them on levels of severity, and that information goes to analysts supporting FEMA. On the map, it is under the Damage Assessment area in the right navigational column.

We, of course, looked at the Rockaways, an area that is still struggling after Hurricane Sandy. Here’s a screenshot from the Crisis Map with the MapMill layer applied (click to enlarge):

mapmill-overlay-google-crisis-map-rockaways-queens

Image source: Google Crisis Map

As you can guess, the red, yellow, and green mean different intensities of damage – red is the worst, followed by yellow, then green.

If you’d like to help, here’s what you do – they’ll need your email address to start out with (submit it here – this is for reference, and they will not share your email with any third parties).

Click on one of the red, yellow, or green squares on the map. This will pop up a Google Maps location balloon with a link called “Help Rate Images Here” that leads you to a page of images for that area. Click on an image and it will take you to a new tab. Don’t worry if it seems like it will never load – it tends to load on the slow side normally, and it will load completely.

Click on at each image with the magnifying glass, and see if you can find any obvious flooding, building damage, or debris. You can click on the image to turn the magnifying glass on and off.

Return to the first tab and rate the image using the following scale:

  • Green: Light or No Damage: shingles or doors missing.
  • Yellow: Moderate Damage: moderate to heavy damage to one or more structures, roads, and infrastructure. Some structures may be only lightly damaged.
  • Red: Severe Damage: heavy damage to multiple structures, or if the area is still flooded.

The photos are pretty amazing. Here are a few – the first one is from Breezy Point, and you can see the contrast between the area that burned and that which didn’t, just next to it – click to enlarge:

breezy-point-map-mill-queens

Image source: MapMill

This is Belle Harbor:

belle-harbor-map-mill-queens

Image source: MapMill

And Broad Channel, which is under a yellow square (Breezy Point and Belle Harbor are in red squares) on the map:

broad-channel-map-mill

Image source: MapMill

This is a very interesting project and we hope this crowdsourcing approach will be of help. MapMill is part of the Humanitarian Open Street Map Team.

Google Crisis Map [google.org]
The Google Crisis Maps: Superstorm Sandy – excellent online resources post-Hurricane Sandy [QNYC]
Hurricane Sandy torched Breezy Point – before and after photos from above [QNYC]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment