Environment
Google Maps Wants to Help You Navigate During Natural Disasters
The app will offer crisis navigation warnings and provide detailed visual information about hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes.
When disaster strikes, we’ve come to rely on our phones. We scroll through Twitter for the latest update on a hurricane or flood, and mark ourselves safe from wildfires or tornadoes on Facebook.
Now Google is adding a disaster-navigation tool to Google Maps. Launching later this summer, a new feature on Google Maps will route users away from areas that are affected by extreme weather events. It will allow you to see confirmed road closures in the affected area, as well as suspected closures (based on crowdsourced user responses). Maps users will also be able to share their live location and other details of the event with friends and family members.