Google Earth allows humanitarian groups to help Haitians

Aid workers in Haiti are served from Google Earth to get on internet key information to illustrate the needs of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the devastating earthquake of January 12, in a technological innovation that could improve response to disasters future.

The idea is so novel and simple: the United Nations officials and nongovernmental organizations can connect to Google Earth from makeshift camps housing more than 600,000 people in Haiti and give details on how much time people and their location coordinates .

Although there were some implementation problems, executives believe that the tool could accelerate humanitarian efforts greatly."Humanitarian agencies must be updated a bit in terms of things like Skype and email from handheld devices," said Alex Wynter, Red Cross spokesman in Haiti. "But in the base camps, are connected and assistance after the disaster is happening to the Internet."

Users who have Google Earth on your computer can enter the www.cccmhaiti.info site where a link has a map of many of the 414 camps, churches, public offices, schools and refugee camps which house the victims of earthquake killed over 200,000 people.

In a normal view of Haiti in Google Earth, appear blue dots that show where people are accommodated. They are identified by street, area or some reference point and some camps are labeled simply "IDP", the acronym in English of "internally displaced persons."

You can activate each blue dot to show a table with information about latitude and longitude of the place, what area is and the estimated number of families and individuals in there. The details are updated frequently so they, in theory, charities and government can predict when supplies will be exhausted or potential hazards such as landslides and floods.
"It's the first time that such sophisticated tool has been implemented with so little preparation time for humanitarian workers after a major emergency," Jean-Philippe Chauzy, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, which was associated in the project with Google, UN and humanitarian information iMMAP group.