I’m sure most of you have also been thinking of the people of the Philippines as they recover from an incredible disaster. Such a tragic scene and a reminder of how angry Mother Nature can become – our thoughts go out to the entire population of the Philippines, to those assisting in the recovery, and to those who have family and friends there. On the topic of the Philippines, we heard that On November 07, 2013 at 7 pm EST, several hours before Typhoon Haiyan made landfall, DigitalGlobe activated FirstLook, an online subscription service for emergency managers and enterprise customers that provides fast, web-based access to pre- and post-event imagery of natural and man-made disasters. In the first few days, following the initial devastation, DigitalGlobe’s satellites collected and delivered over 19,000 square kilometers of imagery in the hardest hit areas, including Tacloban City and the surrounding areas. FirstLook’s frequent revisit times have enabled rapid delivery of quality imagery content during this time-critical event. More on this response from DG can be found in this blog post. Note, the UN is also assisting in the region as can be expected. Of interest, they were requesting help from people in tagging crisis tweets for disaster response – an interesting effort. Here’s more info on that project via Patrick Meier and the iRevolution blog.
And an update from Esri… As a member of the Digital Humanitarian Network, Esri has partnered with the Standby Task Force and GISCorps to create interactive maps documenting the impact of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda Perspectives Map shows how the storm impacted various communities throughout the Philippines. Explore damage reports from social media for Tacloban City and see how the storm has further devastated the area of Bohol, which was struck by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake last month.