Standby Task Force is Supporting FEMA in Response to Hurricane Maria

Standby Task Force (SBTF) is supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in response to Hurricane Maria providing information on the status of hospitals and roads in Puerto Rico.

In support of FEMA and response activities in Puerto Rico, the Standby Task Force volunteers have mapped the status of hospitals and other medical facilities on the island by collecting information from broadcast and social media.

Currently, 70 SBTF volunteers are engaged in another project assessing of the status of the main roads in Puerto Rico by using social media and Civil Air Patrol (CAP) aerial imagery as the primary sources of information. Sixty GISCorps volunteers are also involved in analyzing the CAP imagery.

All the data collected is being fed into a live map that shows all the available sources of information in addition to the data collected by the SBTF volunteers – such as road status from FEMA, NOAA Imagery, and USGS Landslide assessments. This map is providing situational awareness to FEMA and Federal partners in the field on road status in Puerto Rico that is verifiable, cross-checked and available in a single product.

Access to the map is from this SBTF webpage: https://standbytaskforce.org/maps/

 

Who we are:

The Standby Task Force (SBTF) was one of the first 501(c)3 nonprofits to specialize in crisis mapping, social media monitoring, information management, and GIS. When SBTF is activated, its trained volunteers work remotely from all over the world, providing 24-hours of continuous service and vital information to disaster response agencies that are traveling to the site of a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis.

Contact:

Email: [email protected]

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2 comments on “Standby Task Force is Supporting FEMA in Response to Hurricane Maria
  1. Edmund Resor says:

    Would it be possible to get the status of the Internet access to added to the hospital map?

    There is a lot one can do with Internet access, particularly share it for people to post on the Red Cross and Google people finder websites.

    One can also use WhatsApp text messages and get confirmation of successful upload to the server, delivery to the recipient’s device, and when the recipient read the message.

    I will work on getting the locations of the nearest operating and nonoperating VSATs if we can get the above data. If I was not concerned about privacy, I would try to post the locations of this equipment.

    From you social media sources you might be able to post the locations of public Internet Cafes, both working and non working.

  2. deepshikha says:

    Hello Edmund,

    At the moment, our deployments for both Hurricane Irma and Maria have ended. However, another non-profit, Humanity Road has released a couple of sit reps that mention the state of communication in detail. Given below are the links:

    Sitrep 1 (October 4th): https://d378801e40d807e3c11e-747d57cdd4775be1a452173dd9ec5b90.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/6f12e415cb3b430f9b2c0e86979ffd4d.pdf

    Sitrep 2 (October 6th): https://d378801e40d807e3c11e-747d57cdd4775be1a452173dd9ec5b90.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/05ca56ffde26459ca322106d62b8ddd0.pdf

    Moreover, the Federal Communication Commission releases a Communications Status Report every day. Here’s the link to find all reports related to Hurricane Maria: https://www.fcc.gov/maria

    You can find the most recent one here: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db1012/DOC-347207A1.pdf

    Hope this helps.
    Warm regards,
    Deepshikha

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