The past year we have seen disasters and destruction on an unprecedented scale, and the HOT Community has activated to respond. Details on the projects, and how you can get involved are below. This is a critical time in the lives of millions of people worldwide, and we thank the mappers volunteering to support them.

Hurricane Irma and Maria

Context

Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the Caribbean islands, causing extreme destruction. Hurricane Maria has caused widespread damage. According to assessments by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), between 80-90 per cent of buildings were damaged or destroyed. All of the country’s crops have been devastated, and 75 per cent of the island’s trees have been damaged or ripped out of the ground. In September 2017, the entirety of Puerto Rico (3.5 million people) lost power, and there was significant damage and loss of communications in Dominica. We have undertaken mapping in many locations, with Puerto Rico and Dominica currently a high focus.

Progress so far

5,300\+ mappers added over 1.4 million buildings to the map in support of relief efforts led by organisations including International Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation and societies, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Digital Humanitarian Network and MapAction.

Get involved

• Mapping tasks and their status can be found on the Hurricane Irma and Maria OSM wiki page. Map tasks here: http://tasks.hotosm.org/?sort_by=priority&direction=asc&search=hurricane

• Expert, experienced US road network mappers who use JOSM at the expert level: support needed with mapping in Florida, contact OSM US: https://osmus-slack.herokuapp.com/

• Data made available via the HOT Export Tool. The complete list of data available will be continually updated on the Hurricane Irma and Maria OSM wiki page.

Mexico Earthquakes

Context

The strongest earthquake for a century struck Mexico the morning of 8th September 2017. Over 58 people died, 5,000 homes were completely destroyed, and many more were left damaged and vulnerable. Reports from the affected cities said residents spent the morning of the disaster using basic tools and their bare hands to dig through the wreckage of collapsed buildings and pull the injured, and the dead, from the rubble. Another earthquake struck on 19th September. This one was closer to Mexico City and other densely populated areas, and hundreds of deaths were reported in the first day of the tragedy. The estimated humanitarian and economic impact is significant.

Progress so far

Just a few hours after these disasters struck, local leaders from OSM Mexico began support for the map response. In coordination with local teams, we are mapping the affected areas, taking their guidance on priority. Over 1500 mappers digitized 300,000\+ buildings and 24,000\+ kilometers of road network in Mexico. All data was provided to the Mexico National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and data.mx. Many thanks to Céline Jacquin, Edgar Lemus, and Miriam Gonzalez for their leadership in this activation.

Get involved

• Mapping tasks and their status can be found on the 2017 Mexico Earthquake OSM wiki page. Map Tasks here: http://tasks.hotosm.org/?sort_by=priority&direction=asc&search=mexican\+earthquake
• Data made available via the HOT Export Tool. The complete list of data available will be continually updated on the 2017 Mexico Earthquake OSM wiki page.

South Asia floods

Context

In Autumn 2017 South Asia was heavily affected by extreme floods, with over 40 million people affected across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Many of these places remained submerged under water for several weeks since the floods began in mid-August 2017. HOT activated to support efforts in Bangladesh and Nepal, with OSM-Bangladesh helping directly with mapping where 100,000 homes have been destroyed and the risk of fatal diseases like cholera were very high. American Red Cross, HOT’s partners through Missing Maps, deployed to the area to support the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society to update and utilize the maps in response efforts. HOT's partner organization, Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL), who were instrumental in facilitating the exchange of information between the crowd and response organizations during the 2015 Gorkha earthquake; coordinated the mapping efforts in Nepal.

Progress so far

Over 800 mappers added 18,000\+ buildings and 48,000\+ km of road to the map, but much more is needed.

Get involved

• Mapping projects and their status can be found on the South Asia Floods wiki-page. Map tasks here: http://tasks.hotosm.org/?sort_by=priority&direction=asc&search=Flood

• Data made available via the HOT Export Tool. The complete list of data available will be continually updated on the South Asia Floods wiki-page.

Western Pacific Volcanoes

Context

Mount Agung on the Island of Bali, Indonesia has been showing signs of activity. 60,000\+ people live in the exclusion zone and more than 130,000 people in the entire area around the volcano have either fled or are prepared to leave at a moments notice.  HOT Indonesia has begun an effort to map the area around Mount Agung in case the mountain decides to erupt. Not far away in the island nation of Vanuatu several volcanoes there have residents on edge.  HOT community members mapped Vanuatu during Cyclone Pam in 2015 so the basemap is ready, but so are we if the situation changes.

Progress so far

So far 80 mappers have mapped 128,000\+ buildings around Mount Agung in preparation.

Get involved

• Mount Agung mapping projects can be found at http://tasks.openstreetmap.id/

• Stay tuned to HOT and HOT Indonesia social media for breaking news on any volcanic activity.

More resources:

• Learn to Map, or brush up on your mapping skills: the more people that contribute, the quicker we can provide the maps needed to response teams. High quality data is important, and we have a lot of materials online to help create this, visit http://www.missingmaps.org/learn/#beginner/ and http://learnosm.org/en/

• Want to help with or watch the activation coordination? Join us on Slack (https://slack.hotosm.org/) and then join #disaster-mapping

• Want to become an HOT Activator, start with the Activation Essentials course here: http://courses.hotosm.org/

• Got questions? Ask us via Slack, or email info@hotosm.org

• Can you spare some financial support? All donations help HOT to support and maintain our infrastructure ongoing so we can always be ready to respond to disasters: https://www.hotosm.org/donate

• Spread the word via social media so more people can join the mapping: we’re posting regularly on https://twitter.com/hotosm and https://www.facebook.com/hotosm/

• The HeiGIT team from GIScience Heidelberg has updated the Disaster OpenRouteService (disaster.openrouteservice.org) to the following routing regions:
  - North America (including Mexico)
  - Carribean
  - Bangladesh

 We cannot thank HOT Community enough for their contributions, and for anyone affected by these disasters, we’re wishing the best possible outcome for you and your families.