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Helping people stay informed and connected in Japan and Ecuador
April 19, 2016
Over the last few days, Japan and Ecuador have been affected by significant earthquakes. Hundreds have been killed, and many thousands injured or displaced. We’re doing a few things to try to help.
Find and call loved ones
To help people post and search for family or friends affected by the disaster we activated
Person Finder
in Spanish and Japanese. We’re also offering free calls via Hangouts, Hangouts Dialer or Google Voice to and within Ecuador to help people communicate with loved ones.
Learn more on the ground
For people in and around the affected areas, we have Google Now cards with critical crisis-related information like missing person resources, safety zones, and aftershock safety tips. We’ve made the same information available on search for earthquake-related searches. In Japan, we launched a
landing page
and
crisis map
showing accessible roads and places where people can get disaster resources like fresh water. In Ecuador, we updated Waze with more than 90 safe place locations, including local shelter information.
Support for the response
Given the scope of the damage and need in Ecuador, Google.org has committed $250,000 to support relief efforts on the ground. We’re also providing up to $250,000 in Google employee gift-matching for both Japan and Ecuador.
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org
Jacquelline Fuller
Director
Google.org
Improving Public Alerts for hurricane season
August 27, 2015
Ten years ago,
Hurricane Katrina
ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States, flooding cities, displacing thousands of people, and causing billions of dollars worth of damage. It is the costliest natural disaster, and one of the deadliest hurricanes, in U.S. history.
After rescue efforts began in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, some Googlers wondered how they could connect people with useful information and resources related to the storm. With the help of many third-party organizations, small groups of our employees worked to display
satellite imagery
of affected areas in Google Earth and helped build
searchable databases
so people could check on the safety of friends and loved ones. These early efforts later became some of the standard actions taken today by the
Google Crisis Response Team
following natural disasters, from hurricanes to earthquakes to tsunamis.
As the U.S. enters hurricane season again, Katrina remains a stark reminder of the devastation a storm like that can cause. We want to be as prepared and as helpful as possible for the next one—no matter where it hits, or how big it is. So we’re always working to improve our
Crisis Response
efforts to help people stay safe and informed during these events.
With that in mind, we've launched some improvements to weather forecasts and
Public Alerts
in Google Search to track storms during this year's U.S. hurricane season. Now, when you search the web for information about particular
storms
or tornadoes, you may see:
A map showing your location in relation to the oncoming storm
Visualizations of its forecasted track, wind severity and arrival time, courtesy of
NOAA
Concise instructions for preparing and staying safe, customized for the estimated intensity of the storm and its arrival time relative to your location, from
FEMA
and
ready.gov
The safety recommendations you receive will be tailored to reflect the current status of the event and your context. For example, if you search for a specific storm when it’s still several days away, you may see a map of the developing weather event and a recommendation to start preparing an emergency kit. If the storm is only hours away from your location, you might receive a reminder to start charging your phone in case power goes out. And if you search when the storm is nearby, you'll get the most urgent information, like how to avoid injury from fast-moving water or flying debris.
Tropical storm alert with precise location, wind details and customized safety checklist. Improved tropical storm alerts like this will appear in Search on mobile and desktop.
Not every storm is as devastating as Katrina was, but they all have the potential to cause damage, disrupt lives, and uproot communities. By providing useful, accurate, early-warning information, we want to do our part to help people prepare. More information won’t stop natural disasters from occurring, but it can go a long way to keeping people safe, and in some cases, could even save lives.
Posted by Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer
Staying safe this hurricane season
May 30, 2014
Earlier this month, Vivek Maheshwari was heading to the airport after a business trip in Denver when he received a
public alert notification
on his phone telling him there was a tornado heading his way. Luckily, the storm was still a few miles off, so he was able to find an alternate route to the airport and make it home safely.
Easy and timely access to information can make a huge difference in times of crisis—whether to help people like Vivek get out of harm’s way, or to help those affected after a disaster has occurred. The web can help by providing access to official alerts from government organizations, news reports and on-the-ground updates from social media. The key is making sure that all that information can get to those who are affected—as quickly as possible.
That’s one of the things our
Crisis Response Team
focuses on. Since 2010, we’ve been working to make disaster-related information immediately available and useful in a crisis, through tools like
Public Alerts
,
Crisis Map
and
Person Finder
. And since next week marks the start of hurricane season in the North Atlantic, we thought we’d provide a few tips to help you prepare for potential summer disasters—from tropical storms to wildfires to floods.
Make sure you’ll receive Public Alerts
Google Public Alerts
, launched two years ago, is a tool that sends people alerts from authoritative sources like the U.S. National Weather Service or the Japan Meteorological Agency during emergencies. They’re accessible through the
Google search app on your mobile devices
and
Google Chrome on your computer
, as well as in search results for related queries and on Google Maps when relevant.
People have used Public Alerts to get to safety before a
landslide in Colombia
, set up sandbags before a
thunderstorm in Utah
, and get off the road before an
ice storm in Kentucky
. To make sure you get the information you need to know when you need it,
get Google Now
on your Android device, iOS device, or computer.
Public Alerts are now available in seven countries (U.S., Australia, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan) and will continue to roll out to new countries this year.
Install emergency preparedness apps
There are a number of great apps which can help you prepare for or outlast an emergency. For example, a
flashlight app
can be useful if the power goes out and you don’t have access to a regular flashlight (use a regular flashlight if you can to conserve your phone’s battery). The
first-aid and disaster preparedness apps from the Red Cross
have a lot of valuable information. And the official
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) app
has information on how to stay safe during a disaster, the locations of FEMA disaster recovery stations, and more.
And remember, when bad weather is on the way, keep your phone plugged in and follow this
advice
to conserve battery life on Android. If you’re using an iOS device, try
these tips
.
Get helpful gadgets
A
waterproof phone case
can help protect your phone during floods or heavy rains and a
portable solar-powered charger
will help keep your phone’s battery alive. It may also be a good idea to invest in a
cell phone signal booster
which gives you a greater chance of connecting to an operational cell tower.
Of course, tech can only take you so far, so make sure you have the basics (like a
disaster supplies kit
and a
family emergency plan
) covered too—
Ready.gov
is a great resource.
While it’s impossible to predict the weather, we hope these tips help you and your family prepare for the possibility of things going wrong. Stay safe this summer!
Posted by Payal Patel, Google Crisis Response Team
Public Alerts for Google Search, Google Now and Google Maps available in Japan
March 6, 2013
With
nearly 5,000 earthquakes a year
, it’s important for people in Japan to have crisis preparedness and response information available at their fingertips. And from our own
research
, we know that when a disaster strikes, people turn to the Internet for more information about what is happening.
With this in mind, we’re launching Google Public Alerts today in Japan—the first international expansion of a service we
debuted
last year in the United States. Google Public Alerts is a platform designed to provide accurate and relevant emergency alerts when and where you’re searching for them online.
Relevant earthquake and tsunami warnings for Japan will now appear on Google Search, Google Maps and Google Now when you search online during a time of crisis. If a major earthquake alert is issued in Kanagawa Prefecture, for example, the alert information will appear on your desktop and mobile screens when you search for relevant information on Google Search and Google Maps.
Example of a Google Search result on a tablet showing a tsunami warning
Example of a tsunami warning on Google Maps
If you click “詳細” (“More info”) right under the alert, you’ll see more details about the announcement, including the full description from the
Japan Meteorological Agency
, a link to their site, and other useful information like observed arrival times and wave heights for tsunamis.
Example of how a tsunami alert would work in Fukushima
And when you open Google Now on your Android device, recommended actions and information will be tailored to where you are. For example, if you happen to be in Tokyo at a time when a tsunami alert is issued, Google Now will show you a card containing information about the tsunami alert, as well as any available evacuation instructions:
Example of a tsunami warning card on Google Now
We’re able to provide Public Alerts in Japan thanks to the Japan Meteorological Agency, whose publication of data enables Google and others to make critical and life-saving information more widely available.
We hope our technology, including Public Alerts, will help people better prepare for future crises and create more far-reaching support for crisis recovery. This is why in Japan, Google has newly partnered with 14 Japanese prefectures and cities, including seven from the Tōhoku region, to make their government data available online and more easily accessible to users, both during a time of crisis and after. The devastating
Tōhoku Earthquake
struck Japan only two years ago, and the region is still slowly recovering from the tragedy.
We look forward to expanding Google Public Alerts to more countries and working with more warning providers soon. We also encourage potential partners to read our
FAQ
and to consider putting data in an open format, such as the Common Alerting Protocol. To learn more about Public Alerts, visit our
Public Alerts homepage
.
Posted by Yu Chen, Partner Technology Manager
Responding to the severe flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia
January 17, 2013
The Google Crisis Response team has assembled a
resource page
to help track affected areas and provide updated emergency information for the millions affected by flooding in Jakarta. We also have a
mobile page
with emergency contact numbers and lists of shelters, and
enhanced search results on google.co.id
to provide information directly when people search. We’ve also included this information in our
FreeZone
service to reach affected users on feature phones.
On both the page and map, which are available in
English
and
Bahasa Indonesia
, you'll see an update on flood locations and related data such as traffic conditions in areas affected by the flooding.
To share the page or embed these maps on your own site, click "Share" at the top of the page.
We’ll update the content as more information becomes available.
Posted by Alice Bonhomme-Biais, Software Engineer, Google Crisis Response
Public Alerts on Google Search and Maps for Android for superstorm Sandy preparedness information
October 29, 2012
Earlier today
we posted about efforts to provide information to those affected by the former hurricane and now superstorm Sandy.
We also want to let you know that
Public Alerts
are now available on Google Search & Maps in your browser, on Google Maps for Android and also on Google Now for Android devices running Jellybean.
Public Alerts provide warnings for natural disasters and emergency situations. They appear based on targeted Google searches, such as [Superstorm Sandy], or with location-based search queries like [New York]. In addition to the alert, you’ll also see relevant response information, such as evacuation routes, crisis maps or shelter locations.
We were planning on announcing the new features in a few days, but wanted to get them out as soon as possible so they can be helpful to people during this time.
This is part of our continuing mission to bring emergency information to people when and where it is relevant. Public Alerts are primarily available in English for the U.S., but we are working with data providers across the world to expand their reach.
If you are searching for superstorm Sandy, you’ll see content at the top of the Search page specific to this crisis. For other searches, you’ll see public alerts where and when they are live.
Public Alerts on desktop search
Public Alerts on mobile
Desktop search showing content for Sandy-related query
We’re able to gather relevant emergency safety information thanks to a strong network of partners, including
NOAA
and
USGS
. Their commitment to open standards like the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is what makes this all possible.
We’ve also developed partnerships to bring you even more relevant alerts in the future, including local emergency data from Nixle.
To learn more about Public Alerts, visit our
Public Alerts homepage
. If you’re a data provider, and would like to contribute to our efforts, please see our
FAQ
.
We hope that this information makes it easier for you to stay safe.
Posted by Nigel Snoad, product manager, Google Crisis Response
New Crisis Response maps feature preparedness information for Hurricane Sandy
October 29, 2012
Already responsible for a reported 41 deaths across the Caribbean, late-season Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall again early this week on the East Coast of the United States.
Some are calling the hurricane “Frankenstorm” due to its potential mix of both winter and tropical cyclone weather. Regardless of what you call it, we hope that you get the information you need to make preparations and stay safe if you are in the area. It has the potential to be one of the worst storms the area has seen in decades.
The Google Crisis Response team has assembled a
Hurricane Sandy
map to help you track the storm’s progress and provide updated emergency information.
View larger map
.
On the map, you’ll find the following emergency preparedness information:
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
We’ve also launched a map specific to New York City, featuring evacuation zone information from
NYC Open Data
, open shelters, weather information and live webcams.
View larger map
.
You can easily share and embed these maps on your website — just hit the “Share” button at the top of the map to get the HTML code. We’ll continue to update these maps as more information becomes available.
Posted by Ka-Ping Yee, Software Engineer, Google Crisis Response
(Cross-posted on the
Google.org blog
)
Big Tent Sendai: Smarter ways to share information in a crisis
July 3, 2012
As we’ve seen in the last decade,
information technology can save lives
in a crisis. But even as data becomes more crucial to rescue efforts, key information like evacuation routes, shelter locations and weather alerts often remains inaccessible to the public. Time is of the essence in the wake of a disaster, and it's critical for emergency information to be available in open standards and formats to enable instant communication among first responders and affected populations.
This was the theme of our first
Big Tent
in Asia, held yesterday in Sendai, Japan. The event brought together tech industry leaders, non-profits, volunteers and government officials to discuss how technology can better assist in preparing for, responding to and rebuilding from disasters. This is an extremely pertinent issue for the Asia-Pacific region, as nearly
70 percent of fatalities
from natural disasters occur here. And with the earthquake and tsunami last year affecting the coastal regions of Northeastern Japan, Sendai was a particularly meaningful location to discuss new ways that technology can aid the efforts of responders to reduce the impact and cost of disasters.
During the panels, the audience heard stories about how two Pakistani volunteers mapped their home country so well through Google MapMaker that the UN’s mapping agency UNOSAT adopted the maps and provided them to aid workers during the Pakistan floods. Sam Johnson, Founder of the Christchurch Student Army and Young New Zealander of the Year, talked about using Facebook to quickly coordinate relief efforts on the ground after the earthquakes in Christchurch in 2010 and 2011. Twitter Japan Country Manager James Kondo talked about Japanese earthquake victims tweeting with the hashtag “stranded” in order to find help. Meanwhile representatives of open source project
Ushahidi
talked of “brainsourcing” reporters on the ground and remote volunteers to keep the world abreast of conditions in disasters such as the
earthquake in Chile
in 2010.
After the panels, conversations and debates, four key themes emerged. First, there is a conflict between traditional closed data architectures and emerging open models—and we need to close the gap between them. Second, we need to find complementary ways to embrace both authoritative data from official sources and crowdsourced data. Third, there’s a universal need for data, but they way it’s shared needs to be tailored to the local environment—for example, Internet-reliant countries vs. SMS-reliant countries. Finally, we were reminded that beyond the data itself, communication and collaboration are key in a crisis. Information isn’t worth anything unless people are taking that information, adapting it, consulting it and getting it to the people who need it.
One of the panels at Big Tent Sendai
Crisis response tools will continue to improve and more people across the globe will own devices to quickly access the information they need. But there are still major challenges we must address. As
Margareta Wahlström
, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction said, we can now get quick warnings and alerts to many populations on their phones, but many who receive the alerts don’t know how to act.
To see clips from Sendai and previous events, visit the
Big Tent YouTube channel
, where you can also join in the debate via comments, get more information on the presenters and see how different communities approach many of the same issues. We’ll hold more Big Tents in Asia soon, so please check back on our
website
to learn more.
Posted by Nigel Snoad, Product Manager, Google.org Crisis Response Team
Using technology in crisis preparedness
August 31, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Google.org Blog
)
In many ways, the arrival of Hurricane Irene last week drove home the importance of National Preparedness Month, an effort from the FEMA Ready campaign to encourage Americans to take steps to prepare for emergencies throughout the year. With people relying on the Internet worldwide, it’s not surprising that
Google search data
and a recently released
American Red Cross survey show
that people turn to online resources and tools for information and communication during major crises. First responders, who provide services in the aftermath of disasters, are also finding Internet and cloud-based tools and information useful—for improving their understanding of a situation, collaborating with each other and communicating with the public.
Today, in preparation for September’s National Preparedness Month, our Crisis Response team is introducing a new
Google Crisis Preparedness website
with information and educational tools on using technology to prepare for crises. On the site, you can see how individuals and organizations have used technology during crises in the past, including how two girls located their grandfather after the Japan earthquake and tsunami in March of this year and how Americorps tracked volunteers during the tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri in May of this year. There’s a section for responders with information on using Google tools in crises, such as collaborating efficiently using Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Sites, visualizing the disaster-related information with Google My Maps and Google Earth, and more.
Also, you can access a new public preparedness web resource launching today:
Get Tech Ready
, developed as a collaboration between FEMA, the American Red Cross, the Ad Council and Google Crisis Response. There, you’ll find tips on using technology to prepare for, adapt to and recover from disasters, for example:
Learn how to send updates via text and internet from your mobile phone in case voice communications are not available
Store your important documents in the cloud so they can be accessed from anywhere or in a secure and remote area such as a flash or jump drive that you can keep readily available
Create an Emergency Information Document using this
Ready.gov Emergency Plan Google Docs Template
, or by
downloading it
to record and share your emergency plans and access them from anywhere
We encourage you to take a moment now to see how simple, easy-to-use and readily-available technology tools can help you prepare for a crisis. You’ll be more comfortable using these tools in the event of a disaster if you’ve already tried them out—and even integrated them into your daily life.
Posted by Nigel Snoad, Crisis Response Product Manager
Hacking for humanity in Silicon Valley and around the globe
May 24, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Code Blog
and
Google.org Blog
)
Two years ago representatives from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, NASA and the World Bank came together to form the
Random Hacks of Kindness
(RHoK) program. The idea was simple: technology can and should be used for good. RHoK brings together subject matter experts, volunteer software developers and designers to create open source and technology agnostic software solutions that address challenges facing humanity. On June 4-5, 2011 we’ll hold the
third Random Hacks of Kindness global event
at five U.S. locations and 13 international sites, giving local developer communities the opportunity to collaborate on problems in person.
The RHoK community has already developed some applications focused on crisis response such as
I’mOK
, a mobile messaging application for disaster response that was used on the ground in Haiti and Chile; and
CHASM
, a visual tool to map landslide risk currently being piloted by the World Bank in landslide affected areas in the Caribbean.
Person Finder
, a tool created by
Google’s crisis response team
to help people find friends and loved ones after a natural disaster, was also refined at RHoK events and effectively deployed in Haiti, Chile and
Japan
.
We’re inviting all developers, designers and anyone else who wants to help “hack for humanity,” to attend one of the
local events
on June 4-5. There, you’ll meet other open source developers, work with experts in disaster and climate issues and contribute code to exciting projects that make a difference. If you’re in Northern California,
come join us
at the Silicon Valley RHoK event at
Google headquarters
.
And if you’re part of an organization that works in the fields of crisis response or climate change, you can
submit a problem definition online
, so that developers and volunteers can work on developing technology to address the challenge.
Visit
http://www.rhok.org/
for more information and to sign up for your local event, and get set to put your hacking skills to good use.
Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Developer Marketing Team
Messages for Japan
April 10, 2011
One month ago, a massive 9.0 earthquake and one of the worst tsunamis in history struck northeastern Japan. Many people in the most impacted areas still have immediate needs for shelter and supplies, and we’re continuing to help by maintaining the
Crisis Response page
and
building tools and resources
related to the disaster.
Since the crisis, people around the world have sent countless messages of hope and support to the people of Japan. Some of them showed sympathy for the victims. Others encouraged us to look forward. Reading these messages—many of them in English—you can’t help but feel the support coming from around the world. But we wished more people in Japan could hear from these supporters and feel that same sense of hope—even if the senders spoke another language.
So we had an idea: a site where people around the world could input messages for Japan in their own languages and have them automatically translated into Japanese while raising funds to help Japan. And today, we’re pleased to share
messagesforjapan.com
. On the site, you can submit messages and have them automatically translated to Japanese by Google Translate. Of course, people who speak Japanese can also post messages in Japanese if they’d like. You can see messages on the world map, browse them in their original language or in Japanese and donate to the rebuilding effort. We’re planning to deliver some of these messages to people in Japan via offline media as well.
In 1995, I was a volunteer in the disaster area following the
Great Hanshin Earthquake
in Kobe, Japan. After the craziness of first few weeks, I realized just how long it takes to recover from a disaster, and how important is it to rebuild not just the affected cities and towns but also people’s spirits. With this recent crisis, there’s no doubt that we have a long way to go. We hope that these messages from around the world will provide inspiration to the people of Japan as we face this challenge, and that the donations raised through this site and others will help the country on its road to rebuilding.
A final note: Donations raised via the
Crisis Response page
have exceeded five million dollars so far. We truly appreciate your contributions and thank you for your continued support.
Update
April 13, 2011
: Updated the YouTube video to correct a bug in how Arabic was displayed.
Posted by Naoki Sadakuni, Product Marketing Manager, Google Japan
Google Crisis Response: a small team tackling big problems
April 4, 2011
This is the latest post in our
series
profiling entrepreneurial Googlers working on products across the company and around the world. Speed in execution is important for any Google product team, but as we learned after the recent earthquakes in both Japan and New Zealand, it’s even more critical in crisis response. This post is an inside look at the efforts of our year-old Crisis Response team, and what they’re doing to make preparedness tools available to anyone at the click of a button. - Ed.
The Google
Crisis Response Team
came together in 2010 after a few engineers and I realized that we needed a scalable way to make disaster-related information immediately available and useful in a crisis. Until a little over a year ago, we responded to crises with scattered
20 percent time
projects, but after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 we saw the opportunity to create a full-time team that would make critical information more accessible during disaster situations.
For us to help during a crisis, it’s vital to get things done really quickly, and we’ve been able to do that as a small team within Google. Working from a standard already developed by one of the Google engineers, Person Finder was built and launched in 72 hours after the Haitian earthquake, and it launched within three hours after the New Zealand earthquake in February. Unfortunately, there have been an unusually high number of disasters over the last year, forcing us to learn and get even faster.
Within minutes of hearing about the 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan in March, Googlers around the world—from engineers to webmasters to product managers—immediately started organizing a Google Crisis Response
resource page
with disaster-related information such as maps and satellite imagery, Person Finder and news updates and citizen videos on YouTube. In Japan,
Person Finder
went live within an hour of the earthquake. More than 600,000 contact entries have been made since then—more than all other disasters combined—and there have been
several
reports
of people finding their loved ones safe. I was inspired by my colleagues’ ability to launch tools about an hour after the earthquake struck; the Tokyo office, in particular, has really been helping to drive the rapid response and provided real-time information to teams across the globe, even while aftershocks were rocking the city and buildings were still swaying.
But we’re eager to find other ways of helping. In addition to these efforts focused on specific situations, we’ve worked hard this past year to more broadly organize the information most helpful during crisis situations and make it possible for people to use that data in near real-time. If people are asking for information, then in our view, it’s already too late. In these situations, it’s incredibly important that things happen fast.
So in addition to building products, we collaborate with many incredible organizations to make technology useful for responding to a crisis. For example,
Random Hacks of Kindness
is a collaboration between technology companies and government organizations which encourages teams around the world to create software solutions to problems that arise during a crisis. Recent “RHoKstars” have created all sorts of useful tools—from
HeightCatcher
, which helps identify malnourishment of children in relief camps by accurately assessing height and weight through a mobile device, to new features for
Person Finder
, such as email notifications, automatic translation and phonetic name matching—which have all been extremely useful in Japan. These projects present a real opportunity to improve lives by employing crowd-sourcing technology and real-time data during a crisis.
The sheer number of major natural disasters in 2010 and early 2011 demonstrates just how important it is for those involved in relief efforts to have real-time access to information no matter where they are. The Google Crisis Response team has worked over the past year to develop open source initiatives that encourage collaboration with larger crisis response efforts, including relief organizations, NGOs and individual volunteers. And although we’re a small team and still relatively new to the crisis response ecosystem, we hope the resources and support we receive from Google and our community partners around the world will make a difference in preparedness efforts.
Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager, Google Crisis Response Team
New imagery of Japan after the earthquake
March 30, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Lat Long Blog
)
It’s now the third week after the devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan. Aid organizations have been hard at work and cities are starting to show signs of recovery, but the damage is beyond imagination and there are still thousands of people at shelters grappling with daily challenges. As a native of Sendai city, I’m still speechless seeing the destruction and damage that has been done to the places I love and care about.
We’ve been looking for ways we can assist in the relief efforts using Google’s map-related tools. A few days after the quake, we published
updated satellite imagery
of northeast Japan in Google Maps and Google Earth, which illustrated the massive scale of devastation in the affected areas.
Today, we’ve published imagery of the Sendai region at even higher resolution, which we collected on Sunday and Monday. The new Sendai imagery, along with satellite imagery from throughout the area, is now live in the base imagery layer of Google Earth and will soon be visible in Google Maps. We hope to continue collecting updated images and publishing them as soon as they are ready.
We hope our effort to deliver up-to-date imagery provides the relief organizations and volunteers working around the clock with the data they need to better understand the current conditions on the ground. We also hope these tools help our millions of users—both those in Japan and those closely watching and sending their support from all over the globe—to find useful information about the affected areas.
A riverside neighborhood in Sendai from our newly released imagery
Posted by Keiichi Kawai, Senior Product Manager, on behalf of Google Japan and international Crisis Response teams
More resources for those affected by the Japan earthquake and tsunami
March 17, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Google.org Blog
)
Like the rest of the world, we’ve been transfixed by the images and news coming out of the northeastern part of Japan over the past six days. Our hearts go out to those who have been affected by this devastation and we’re deeply grateful to those who are working to keep us safe. In the meantime, Googlers in Japan and elsewhere around the world have been working around the clock to try and help improve the flow of information. Here are some of the recent developments we’ve been working on:
Centralized information
Our
Crisis Response page
—now in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean—organizes all of Google’s efforts, with links to valuable resources such as emergency hotlines, Person Finder, blackout schedules, maps and links to relief organizations receiving donations.
Ninety-three percent
of mobile users in Japan don’t have top-of-the-line smartphones, so we’ve recently
optimized this Crisis Response page
to make it more readable for a wider range of devices. You can also access that version by scanning this QR code:
Person Finder
Within the first two hours of the earthquake, we launched
Person Finder
so people can enter the names of those they’re looking for or have found. You can now also search by
entering mobile phone numbers
to see if they match any listings. And as with the Crisis Response page, Person Finder has also been
optimized for those without smartphones
. There are currently more than 250,000 records in the database (including names shared with us by NHK, the national broadcaster in Japan) and we’ve heard
several reports
of people who have found their loved ones safe.
To help the many people in shelters get word of their whereabouts to loved ones, we’re also asking people in shelters to take photos of the handwritten lists of names of current residents and
email them to us
. Those photos are automatically uploaded to a public
Picasa Web Album
. We use scanning technology to help us manually add these names to Person Finder; but it’s a big job that can’t be done automatically by computers alone, so
we welcome volunteers
with Japanese language skills who want to help out.
Satellite images
We’re also working with our satellite partners GeoEye and DigitalGlobe to provide frequent updates to our imagery of the hardest-hit areas to first responders as well as the general public. You can view this imagery in this
Google Earth KML
, browse it
online through Google Maps
or look through our
Picasa album
of before-and-after images of such places as
Minamisanriku
and
Kesennuma
.
Mapping
You can follow developments on the ground by looking at several maps that track changing developments. We’ve
mapped rolling blackouts
for areas that are affected by power outages. With data given to us by Honda, you can now see which roads have been recently passable on
this map
or this user-made
Google Earth mashup
with new satellite imagery. We’re also constantly updating a master map (in
Japanese
and
English
) with other data such as epicenter locations and evacuation shelters. And with information from the newspaper Mainichi, we’ve published a
partial list of shelters
.
Translation
Use
Google Translate
for Japanese and 56 other languages. You can paste in any text, or enter the address of any web page for automatic translation. We also just released an early experimental version of
Google Translate for Android
to help non-Japanese speakers in affected areas.
Donations
Visit our
Crisis Response resource page
to find opportunities to donate. When you donate to Japan relief efforts through Google Checkout, we absorb processing fees—so 100% of your money goes to the organizations. Google has also donated $250,000 to help the people of Japan recover.
To keep up with the latest developments on our efforts in Japan, follow
@googlejapan
(tweets are mostly in Japanese) or
@earthoutreach
(for our mapping and imagery efforts) on Twitter.
Posted by Nobu Makida, Product Manager, on behalf of the Google Japan and international Crisis Response teams
Post-earthquake imagery of Japan
March 12, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
LatLong Blog
)
In
response to
the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan, we’ve worked with our satellite imagery providers to get the latest available data of the areas affected most.
To view this high-resolution imagery, courtesy of our partners at GeoEye, download
this KML file
and explore it in
Google Earth
. You can also explore the imagery
with Google Maps
, or have a look at
this Picasa album
of before-and-after shots. Here’s a sample:
Before and after the earthquake and tsunami. Above is Yuriage in Natori, below is Yagawahama; both are in Miyagi prefecture.
High-resolution version of this photo
.
We’re working to provide this data directly to response organizations on the ground to aid their efforts. We hope this new updated satellite imagery is valuable for them as well as everyone else following this situation to help illustrate the extent of the damage.
You can find more information regarding the disaster and resources for those in need at our Crisis Response page in
English
and
Japanese
. You can also follow
@earthoutreach
on Twitter to stay up to date with our mapping and imagery efforts.
Posted by Ryan Falor, Google Crisis Response team
Assembling resources following the earthquake in Japan
March 12, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Google.org Blog
)
I was in the middle of writing code when the Google Japan office, on the 26th floor of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, started shaking slowly. The rocking gradually increased, and I looked out the window to see the surrounding buildings all swaying ominously. Although alerts from the building urged us to evacuate via the emergency stairs, I couldn't help but stay and search for information about the earthquake’s epicenter and scale. Amidst a series of aftershocks rocking our office, a small group of us in Tokyo and several other Google offices started gathering information about the earthquake to create the
Crisis Response information page
.
As someone who experienced the
Kobe earthquake
16 years ago when I was at university, I cannot forget the immediate desire for information. There was no way to find out where people's family and friends were, if transportation would be available to get us home, and most importantly, whether we would be able to find shelter.
This experience helped me remember that during a crisis, information about shelters can become increasingly muddled. Together with our Google Crisis Response team, we decided to organize existing public information from local governments about the concerned areas. Because of the very high volume of web traffic yesterday, this proved difficult to access. Collaborating with the Google Maps engineering team in Tokyo, we rapidly put together a
page of information on Google Maps
for our Crisis Response page.
And thanks to our colleagues in California and around the globe, within one hour of the earthquake we launched
Google Person Finder
, a tool to help locate missing people, in Japanese, Chinese and English. We published sites in
Japanese
and
English
with maps, news updates, videos and resources. We also posted tsunami alerts on the Google homepage for appropriate domains to make sure as many people as possible saw the warning. And in addition to these tools we've made available, we are donating $250,000 to organizations in Japan who are working on relief and recovery efforts.
Our hearts go out to those who have been affected by the tragedy, and we thank the citizens, first responders and organizations working hard to keep everyone safe.
Posted by Ken Miura on behalf of Google Japan and international Crisis Response teams
Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard
January 31, 2011
Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.
We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we
acquired
last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to
twitter.com/speak2tweet
.
We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.
Update
Feb 1, 12:47 PM
: When possible, we're now detecting the approximate (country-level) geographic origin of each call dialing one of our speak2tweet numbers and attaching a hashtag for that country to each tweet. For example, if a call comes from Switzerland, you'll see #switzerland in the tweet, and if one comes from Egypt you'll see #egypt. For calls when we can't detect the location, we default to an #egypt hashtag.
Posted by Ujjwal Singh, CoFounder of SayNow and AbdelKarim Mardini, Product Manager, Middle East & North Africa
Haiti, one year after the earthquake
January 12, 2011
It’s been one year since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, and governments and NGOs are continuing to respond, many using high-resolution images of the area. To support these efforts, we’ve updated our aerial imagery in Google Earth of the Port-au-Prince area to include images from before and after the earthquake, as well as made updates throughout 2010. These pictures provide an evolving view of the movement of people, supplies and rubble.
To access this imagery directly, use the
Historical Imagery feature of Google Earth
.
Complementing our online efforts with this imagery, a
webpage
and crisis response tools such as
Person Finder
, Google has made an effort to contribute to relief in Haiti by providing technical and financial support to NGOs. These organizations such as
Doctors Without Borders
and
Partners in Health
and specific technology NGOs such as
Samasource
and
Frontline SMS
continue to help the Haitian people. We’ve looked to them to help us guide our ongoing response to this crisis.
In November, we gathered updated aerial imagery, and sent a second wave of Google teams to Haiti to evaluate our earlier response efforts and see where Google could continue to provide help. We met with local Haitians and technology NGOs under tents, in trailers, in Internet cafes and at restaurants.
From these visits we witnessed the difficulty involved in using our mapping tools under the unpredictable nature of the Internet in Haiti, and so have focused on developing better offline capabilities and have proposed ideas for
improving overall Internet access in Haiti
. We also ran training for aid workers on our collaborative tools like Google Apps, which can help coordinate resources. While there, we spent time understanding how NGOs are combating the
cholera epidemic
, and brainstorming tools that could help aid workers produce specialized maps of epidemic case data and chlorination levels at water points, which are critical for planning and prevention.
If you’re interested in helping with Google’s efforts in Haiti, you can:
Support our open source Crisis Response projects such as
Person Finder
or attend conferences like the
Random Hacks of Kindness
.
Volunteer with NGOs working on Crisis Response technology such as
Crisis Commons
and
Ushahidi
.
Our experience and the updated imagery demonstrate that there are still significant needs on the ground in Haiti. We’re continuing our efforts to support locals and NGOs and look forward to seeing how technology will continue to help both Haitians and victims of disasters worldwide.
Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager, on behalf of Google Crisis Response
Our Clinton Global Initiative commitment to Pakistan
September 21, 2010
At the opening ceremony of the
Clinton Global Initiative
(CGI) this morning, President Clinton discussed the urgent need to help the people of Pakistan recover from widespread floods which have affected more people than the 2004 South Asia tsunami, the 2005 South Asia earthquake, and the Haiti earthquake combined.
The floods have
put one-fifth of the land underwater, impacting more than 20 million people, damaging or destroying 1.9 million homes, putting
3.5 million children
at risk of waterborne diseases, and wiping out livestock and crops.
Unfortunately the
global response has been anemic
. While U.S. corporations, foundations and individuals responded admirably to the earthquake in Haiti by donating
$900 million in the first five weeks after the disaster
, that same group donated $25 million to Pakistan in the first five week weeks after the floods hit. In an
interview with citizens
hosted by YouTube, President Clinton called for a dramatically increased global response.
As part of our CGI commitment this year, Google is providing $1 million in charitable grants, as well as
technology support
to help the people of Pakistan recover from these floods. Roughly one-third of our grants support organizations providing clean water, shelter, medical care and other immediate needs, while two-thirds will be focused on longer-term rebuilding efforts. Partners for the first round of support include:
A.S. Edhi International Foundation
,
Architecture for Humanity
,
CARE
,
The Citizens Foundation
,
Naya Jeevan for Kids
,
Real Medicine Foundation
,
SIUT North America
,
Sungi Development Foundation
and
UM Healthcare Trust
.
Amazing work is already being done by these organizations. SIUT, for example, has already established seven medical relief camps and three field hospitals in different parts of the country. Their doctors and paramedics have treated more than 100,000 people, many of whom are suffering from gastroenteritis, malaria and skin diseases.
In remarks during the opening plenary today, Eric Schmidt noted the importance of bringing 21st century technology solutions to disaster relief work. In collaboration with numerous NGOs, for example, Google developed
Person Finder
, an application that allows individuals to check on the status of friends and loved ones affected by a disaster, a few days after the Haiti earthquake. We developed
Resource Finder
, an experimental tool that aggregates information on health facilities to help first responders, and shared our
MapMaker
data with the U.N. We’ve published sites linked from our homepage to provide updated maps and imagery, videos, news and ways to donate in the wake of recent natural disasters in
Haiti
,
Chile
,
China
,
Pakistan
and the
Gulf oil spill
.
We’re excited to be at CGI this week to learn about innovative ways to use technology to assist with health, development and disaster response. We encourage non-profits to visit our newly updated
Google for NonProfits
site to learn how Google’s free tools can help expand the impact of each organization.
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Advocacy Director, Google.org
Responding to the fires in San Bruno
September 10, 2010
Update
at 6:27pm
: We now have updated satellite imagery (from
GeoEye
) of the area. You can download it
here
and view it in Google Earth.
Update
on Sep 11:
These before and after images show the extent of damage in one area of San Bruno.
Before
After
Like many friends in the Bay Area and across the country, I’ve been stunned by the images of raging fires in San Bruno. Nearly 40 structures have been destroyed and 120 damaged, with several fatalities and multiple injuries after the explosion of a gas line. More than 100 people have been evacuated to nearby shelters.
This disaster strikes close to home; our YouTube offices are about two miles away from the main gas explosion. We’re thankful that no Google employee was hurt, but remain concerned for the well-being of our neighbors in the area.
We are donating an initial amount of $50,000 to the
American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter
to help with relief efforts. We’re directing Googlers to the local blood drives today and will be hosting blood drives in our San Bruno, Mountain View and San Francisco offices early next week.
We’ve created
this map
to show the location of the explosion and highlight nearby shelters and resources. The map is open for collaboration and welcomes additional useful information. We encourage you to embed it in your website or blog. We are also exploring the possibility of obtaining updated imagery of the area to help responders visualize the scope of the disaster.
View
San Bruno Gas Explosion
in a larger map
Our hearts go out to our neighbors who have been affected by the explosion. We thank the firefighters and first responders who have been working tirelessly to contain the fires and help the residents of San Bruno. You can donate to help
here
.
Posted by Laszlo Bock, VP of People Operations
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