Couple creates website to help Houston victims
Coders cull info from Twitter
Sitting in her Virginia home Sunday night, looking at Twitter, Michele Hansen could not stop thinking about the dozens of tweets sent by Houston residents pleading to be rescued from the rising waters, desperately hoping someone with a boat would see their post.
So about 10:30 p.m., Hansen and her husband Mathias Hansen pulled out their laptops and did the only thing they could think of to help: they started coding. Three hours later, the couple had created a website that automatically shows where stranded people are waiting.
“Seeing that people were unable to get through to 911 because the phone lines were jammed was utterly heartbreaking,” said Michele Hansen, who is originally from Boxford, Mass. “As I was wishing I could get a boat and get down there, it dawned on me, we have map data, we have experience.”
Michele and Mathias Hansen co-founded Geocodio, a mapping data firm, and combined their service with a stream of tweets that have addresses in them and are directed toward certain accounts or use hashtags including #harveysos. The map automatically updates every five minutes.
“We woke up this morning and we had 150 people, 150 addresses, which really speaks to the scale of people who can’t get to 911, which is terrifying,” said Mathias Hansen. “We thought something like this should already exist.”
It’s unclear if their map has led any first responders to stranded people, but the couple has spoken to the Red Cross and other groups responding to Texas and have been told rescue crews may soon start to use the map, They have also heard from other developers who want to improve the map.
Yesterday, Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said more than 2,000 people have been rescued.
“There’s so many people needing help,” Michele Hansen said. “I’ve never cried while building something before.”