9/22/09–In disaster response work, a common challenge is to quickly gather data and accurately fuse it together to provide actionable information for those managing the emergency and related relief efforts. Properly trained emergency planners can use spatial information to implement measures, such as, establishing communications sites, restoring electrical power, and planning traffic routes to carry emergency supplies to critical facilities. Often, specific locally-stored datasets are not available to accommodate every possible contingency that may arise in disaster operations. In these cases, freely available content from ArcGIS Online can be used to help support these disaster response efforts. For example, demographic data from ArcGIS Online was recently used to create a map of the wildfires that affected southern California.

Below are a sample of the maps and data that are available through ArcGIS Online that can be used to support disaster response efforts:

Earthquake maps and data 

Flood maps and data

Hurricane and cyclone maps and data

Wildfire imagery maps and data

See esri.com for more information on disaster response and assistance.

See ArcGIS Online Help for information on the conditions for external use of ArcGIS Online content during a disaster.