Hurricane Sandy has already been responsible for 69 deaths in the Caribbean and is now heading up the Eastern seaboard. It is expected to make landfall on the East coast of the U.S. today, affecting major cities such as Philadelphia, Boston and New York. Sandy is unofficially being referred to as a ‘Frankenstorm’ due to the unique combination of tropical and winter conditions that it might cause.
The level of preparedness and forethought surrounding the arrival of Hurricane Sandy seems to be quite high and organized, thanks in part to social media, news coverage and several press releases. President Obama has declared a state of emergency in the Northeastern states, and governors of New Jersey and New York are urging people to evacuate those cities. New York City has shut down public transport and the entire financial sector’s activity has been suspended.
Google has contributed to the preparations by launching a Hurricane Sandy map to help people track its progress across the U.S. The Google Crisis Response service will also release updates about emergency operations as they happen.
Source: Google Blog
On the map, you’ll find the following emergency preparedness information regarding Hurricane Sandy:
- Location tracking, including the hurricane’s current and forecasted paths, courtesy of the NOAA-National Hurricane Center
- Public alerts, including evacuation notices, storm warnings, and more, via weather.gov and earthquake.usgs.gov
- Radar and cloud imagery from weather.com and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
- Evacuation information and routes
- Shelters and recovery centers will appear as they become operational
- Storm footage and storm-related YouTube videos, curated by Storyful
The maps can be embedded in your website by clicking the ‘Share’ button at the top of the image. This will generate HTML code that can be easily plugged into your post, like so:
If you are in the Northeastern U.S. make sure you take the necessary precautions to prepare yourself for Hurricane Sandy. This storm has the potential to be one of the worst to hit the area in decades.