The most excellent Tumblr of the Sunlight Foundation
Every Hurricane Since 1851
IDVsolutions has graphed the path and intensity of every hurricane since 1851, worldwide, onto this map. You’re staring up from Antarctica, with the Americas to the right and Oceania/Asia to the left.
The numbers tell the story. Over the last twenty years, it is conservatively estimated that disasters have killed 1.3 million people, affected 4.4 billion and resulted in economic losses of $2 trillion.
These are staggering numbers when you consider what it means in terms of missed opportunities, shattered lives, lost housing, schools and health facilities destroyed, cultural losses and roads washed away.
Infographic from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
John Nelson of IDV Solutions put 56 years worth of tornadoes on a map. John plotted each tornado’s path and used brightness for its F-scale (level of intensity). He also added secondary charts for deaths and injuries and frequency by F-scale.
New Orleans’ population has declined 30% since hurricane Katrina. Homes left abandoned are being ‘taken back’ by nature. Snakes and pests are moving in closer to the city, too.
More at the NYTimes
Say a prayer for Angel Babcock, the miracle 2-year-old who was found 10 miles from her home and now clings to life after a tornado killed her family.
This is insane. The tornado carried this poor child TEN MILES ACROSS FIELDS. We’re crossing our tumblr fingers for this one.
This infographics shows where big earthquakes occurred in the past 100 years.
Pacific ocean looks the holy ground of earthquake.
via tripgraphics
NASA maps a decade of fires, a global tour
Using satellite data that goes back to 2002, NASA maps tens of millions of fires worldwide in this global tour.
Daily chart: America’s costliest hurricanes. Hurricanes that tear up America’s east coast in the way Irene did are rare, but certainly not unheard of. How much damage it caused remains to be seen.
With Hurricane Irene poised to come barreling up the mid-Atlantic region this weekend (and the potential for evacuation in New York City), we were inspired to take a look at hurricane and other coastal evacuation maps as provided by states along the eastern seaboard.
Messages for Japan at Tanabata in Sendai
A month after this spring’s devastating earthquake in Japan, we created a site where people from around the world could submit messages of hope in their own languages and have them automatically translated into Japanese. From Paris to Dubai to Manila, nearly 30,000 messages have been posted through messagesforjapan.com.
3D model of Joplin tornado debris
Not long ago, we showed you some fresh imagery from Joplin, MO, after they were hit by that devastating tornado.
Steve Ansari from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) recently sent us an amazing file that shows debris from the tornado in a 3D model!
Excellent visualization of Grimsvotn’s ash cloud
Last April we showed you a variety of imagery and tools related to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland, as it caused some major travel delays across the globe.
More than 280 people were killed in Wednesday’s tornado outbreak, bringing the year’s total to over 330 and making it the deadliest year since 1974, when 366 people were killed.
