People clamor for resources and information about Hurricane Sandy online and off tonight, but to be truly awed - and to get realtime, essential emergency information - visit and share Google's live interactive Super Storm Sandy 2012 crisis map.
This comes with Google's new Public Alerts now available on Google Search & Maps in browsers, on Google Maps for Android, and also on Google Now for Android devices running Jellybean.
On the map, users can toggle checkboxes to show summaries of power outage information, shelters (with popup information on location, phone numbers and more), storm forecast and tracking, webcams and YouTube videos, evacuation routes, and much more.
The storm has gone from being called a hurricane and now holds the title of "super storm" - and is breaking records that are making history and leaving a wake of tragedy in its stead.
People turn to the internet during emergencies
Power is still out, but it's clear that people are still connected as tweets, videos, images and even blog posts are making their way out of cities like New York, which has millions in the dark as of this writing.
Most news outlets can't keep up with realtime developments, and those who remain connected to the internet are hammering Twitter's resources and sharing the horrifying events as they occur.
Resources seem plentiful but scattered across different online locations. In response, people have come together online to create information sharing hubs and project lists (both urgent and 'interesting') via the Hurricane Hackers Task Tracker Google Doc, and the #HurricaneHackers Twitter hashtag.
Hurricane Hackers have compiled their resource docs on Google's robust Drive.
If you want to help get systems in place, join #HurricaneHackers on irc.freenode.net
— Hurricane Hackers (@HurricaneHackrs) October 30, 2012
Proving that Google can do amazing things with the vast resources they've amassed with Google Maps, piles of data and some of the world's best devs, they've built a hell of a resource that informs and supplies crucial resources in one place and on one map.
The interactive Google Map called Super Storm Sandy is a superlative interactive experience that is a model I hope is widely shared in social networks to help those affected and shared through official channels with its vital information - not seen in one spot anywhere else.
The Google Super Storm Sandy map makes resources and up to the minute information findable by location - vital during natural disasters. The Google Crisis Response Team compiles the information from official information sources and user-generated content.
Even if users are not online, the map can be saved to a smartphone via the Google Maps app's "save for offline" function.
Simply visit the Google Super Storm Sandy URL (google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy)- click from a friend or search for 'super storm sandy google map'.
Click the "Google crisis response: Map with evacuation info" link.
In your phone's drop-down menu, click "save for offline reading."
To access the different interactive features of the map, click the "Layers" button on the map.
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