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    After Hurricane Dorian, The 'Wikipedia Of Maps' Came To The Rescue

    Humanitarians are using crowdsourcing software to fill in blank spots on maps of disaster-prone countries.
    by Joanne Lu Oct 03, 2019 6 minutes
    Left: Volunteers take part in a "mapathon" organized by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Right: OpenStreetMap contributors pinpoint dump sites along rivers and waterways in Dar es Saalam in an effort to predict and prevent flooding in the Tanzanian city.

    When Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas on Sept. 1, local disaster response agencies quickly realized they needed help. But not the kind of help you might expect: They needed mappers.

    With thousands of people missing and homes and roads underwater, responders needed to know where to look. They also needed to quickly assess the damage across multiple islands and determine the best places to set up distribution points for food, water and other basic needs. But they couldn't, because maps of the Abaco Islands, where Dorian made landfall, were incomplete.

    That is, until 107 volunteers from around the world logged onto their computers and, over the course of five days, used satellite imagery and mapping software to identify and draw more than 1,600 roads and 9,000 buildings.

    "Without a complete and comprehensive operating picture for all parties on the ground to use, we couldn't plan our response activities to Dorian," says Chani Goering, a spokesperson for the Pacific Disaster Center,

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