As a nor’easter bears down on the Sandy ravaged East Coast, a system to provide accurate and timely disaster information is being rolled out by Google in collaboration with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Google Public Alerts website features a map of the U.S. with severe weather warnings labeled and notices about recent earthquakes. The site allows users to search for key terms to find important information such as: What’s happening? Where and when will an event strike? How severe will it be?
“From having been on the front line of several crises, I know personally that the internet can get populated with misinformation that confuses the public and can interfere with response efforts,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt in a press release. “I am very grateful for this partnership with Google to point people to authoritative sources of critical information when they need it most.”
IMAGE: The “Christmas Nor’easter” – Visible satellite imagery of a blizzard east of Cape Cod, Massetchussetts, showing a shallow eye-like feature typical of a strong nor’easter, December 27, 2010. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Wikimedia Commons)
