While the world looked on in shock at the pictures coming out of Houston, Texas, some people swung into action, developing crowdsourcing initiatives to help rescue victims and coordinate relief efforts to flood-hit areas.
Their actions have helped to save countless lives.
Relief and Rescue
Among the crowdsourcing undertakings is Harvey Relief, a people-powered project involving more than 500 individuals. It has created a map of resources such as where to find medical aid, food distribution points, pet care, shelter, pharmacy aid and more. There is also a rescue map involving hundreds of volunteers working 24 hours a day locating and working directly with victims in need of rescue and plotting them on the map.
It was started by Danny McGlashing, a coder and Jessica Decker who has a background in science visualization. She lives in San Francisco and when she woke up to the devastating news about the hurricane last Friday she put a call on Twitter, tagging people she had worked with, asking if they wanted to map resource information. McGlashing was one of those who responded and the pair teamed up to form Harvey Relief.
Saving Lives
There is also Harvey Rescue, which was searching and mapping rescue requests on Twitter from people who were stranded. It was created in under three hours in a leaky office with intermittent power and has led to more than 7,600 active rescues. It is winding down now as a note on its website says that it is no longer needed.