Disasters caught on Google Maps

[fillup420]

I was looking around on Google maps today, and came across Lumberton, NC. The current satellite image was taken during the flooding aftermath of one of the recent hurricanes, not sure which one. It is clear that parts of I-95, NC 72, local roads, and a CSX rail line are submerged in the nasty black water of the Lumber River. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6265914,-79.028853,1840m/data=!3m1!1e3

any other examples of this?

edit: oops, put this in wrong category. Mods? can we relocate?

[SectorZ]

It's not there anymore, but for a while in the early-2010's the sat pix for central Mass showed a lot of river flooding upstream of the Birch Hill Dam on Millers River, flooding a lot of Lake Dennison State Park. The dam is for flood control for all the large rivers draining into the Connecticut River, and the flooded area existed for that purpose (so not quite the disaster you're seeking). Since it was early 2010's and no greenup of the foliage, I presume it was from March 2010 when the area had over 10 inches of rain and melted precip in about a 3 week period.

Historic aerials has a 2010 pic but it's clearly summertime based on the greenup in the area, and the river is back to its normal state at that point.

[Stephane Dumas]

I remember then Google maps once showed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

It also shown the satellite shot of Lac-Mégantic train wreck in 2013.
https://canadajournal.net/world/google-map-image-destroyed-lac-megantic-disgusting-photo-10700-2014/

[MCRoads]

I remember then Google maps once showed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

It also shown the satellite shot of Lac-Mégantic train wreck in 2013.
https://canadajournal.net/world/google-map-image-destroyed-lac-megantic-disgusting-photo-10700-2014/

Wow! That is an overblown reaction! Google probably does little to no processing of its satellite images, as that would need hundreds of people to work for hundreds of hours combing through all that data to remove undesirable images. Probably the only processing they do is sensorineural military bases with known coordinates. It isn't any attempt to be "sensationalist" , the satellite just passes over the town at the wrong time, and took a picture of the train wreck. Yes, it sucks to be reminded of a horrible incident, but still... I bet if the town had sent a reasonable request to have the images removed, google would have listened. Either way, it isn't there now, I just thought this was a rather silly attempt to get views.

[vdeane]

Yeah, such only guarantees that even MORE people will see the image.

In any other news... anybody know why this thread is in the Bridges forum?

[webny99]

In any other news... anybody know why this thread is in the Bridges forum?

I was wondering that as well. It seems more like Off-Topic.

[CoreySamson]

An interesting series of images where FM 1462 crosses the Brazos River:

The first image in question was taken in May 2011, when SE Texas was in a severe drought:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3498707,-95.5825415,3a,70.7y,32.32h,80.05t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sLvwjz4YLkYd9AckSyST-3Q!2e0!5s20110501T000000!7i13312!8i6656

This second image was taken right after the April 2016 Houston floods, which also flooded homes downriver.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3498986,-95.5825392,3a,75y,32.32h,80.05t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sy5oEI9f9N1WQxK2yxzM0DQ!2e0!5s20160601T000000!7i13312!8i6656

And finally, this last one shows the destructive erosion caused by Hurricane Harvey, which flooded out even more people than the flood of the previous year.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.349904,-95.5825694,3a,87.1y,51.48h,73.29t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1skKRilVXODWk-R66VWk9oCQ!2e0!5s20190101T000000!7i16384!8i8192

These two images where SH-35 crosses the Brazos are also interesting:
Before Harvey:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.1443797,-95.6058832,3a,28.7y,31.46h,86.13t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1smlns2gJvn6suDHzJccamrQ!2e0!5s20131101T000000!7i13312!8i6656
After Harvey:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.1444114,-95.6058577,3a,75y,31.46h,86.13t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHKQDNqv5R6VvheGQS1US2g!2e0!5s20190301T000000!7i16384!8i8192

[SteveG1988]

In any other news... anybody know why this thread is in the Bridges forum?

I was wondering that as well. It seems more like Off-Topic.

Because most disasters can be bridge related. since they would be the first things to go if one hit.

[Mr. Matté]

I bet Google has aerial imagery of disaster areas taken right after such disasters for historical purposes. In Google Earth, there's imagery taken of the NYC/Northern NJ area right after 9/11, and then again after Hurricane Sandy.

[Duke87]

I was looking around on Google maps today, and came across Lumberton, NC. The current satellite image was taken during the flooding aftermath of one of the recent hurricanes, not sure which one. It is clear that parts of I-95, NC 72, local roads, and a CSX rail line are submerged in the nasty black water of the Lumber River. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6265914,-79.028853,1840m/data=!3m1!1e3

What I find interesting here is that, in spite of the fact that I-95 is only impassible between exits 17 and 19, it is closed at exit 13 to the south and at least up to exit 22 (impossible to tell if beyond, imagery at that point is from a different time) to the north.

So I guess NCDOT had the bug of only being willing to close the interstate at a major interchange, denying the ability of local traffic to use more of the road in order to block thru traffic from getting stuck or lost trying to detour more locally.

It does at least look like there is no passable way to head north on local roads from at exit 17, so all northbound thru traffic would need to have gotten off at exit 13 anyway. But this would have been a viable detour route if the road was open down to exit 19 from the north.

[jeffandnicole]

I was looking around on Google maps today, and came across Lumberton, NC. The current satellite image was taken during the flooding aftermath of one of the recent hurricanes, not sure which one. It is clear that parts of I-95, NC 72, local roads, and a CSX rail line are submerged in the nasty black water of the Lumber River. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6265914,-79.028853,1840m/data=!3m1!1e3

What I find interesting here is that, in spite of the fact that I-95 is only impassible between exits 17 and 19, it is closed at exit 13 to the south and at least up to exit 22 (impossible to tell if beyond, imagery at that point is from a different time) to the north.

So I guess NCDOT had the bug of only being willing to close the interstate at a major interchange, denying the ability of local traffic to use more of the road in order to block thru traffic from getting stuck or lost trying to detour more locally.

It does at least look like there is no passable way to head north on local roads from at exit 17, so all northbound thru traffic would need to have gotten off at exit 13 anyway. But this would have been a viable detour route if the road was open down to exit 19 from the north.

Google Maps is just treating your link as getting from one place to another, and being 95 is currently the fastest route that's the way it's taking us.

I could see that Rt. 27 was flooded in the aerial photo, so I'm sure other roads were flooded nearby.

Since it's hard to tell what route you're referring to, in situations like this they often don't have many choices. Floodwaters can rise and recede qucikly, and "local" is gonna mean different things to someone. 1 mike from the highway? In the same county?. They're just gonna have to take the detour and manage to find their way home.

[Dirt Roads]

I was looking around on Google maps today, and came across Lumberton, NC. The current satellite image was taken during the flooding aftermath of one of the recent hurricanes, not sure which one. It is clear that parts of I-95, NC 72, local roads, and a CSX rail line are submerged in the nasty black water of the Lumber River. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6265914,-79.028853,1840m/data=!3m1!1e3

What I find interesting here is that, in spite of the fact that I-95 is only impassible between exits 17 and 19, it is closed at exit 13 to the south and at least up to exit 22 (impossible to tell if beyond, imagery at that point is from a different time) to the north.

So I guess NCDOT had the bug of only being willing to close the interstate at a major interchange, denying the ability of local traffic to use more of the road in order to block thru traffic from getting stuck or lost trying to detour more locally.

It does at least look like there is no passable way to head north on local roads from at exit 17, so all northbound thru traffic would need to have gotten off at exit 13 anyway. But this would have been a viable detour route if the road was open down to exit 19 from the north.

Depending upon which hurricane aftermath was in the GSV image, one of the issues NCDOT faced was that there was also flooding upstream on the Lumber River (and also the Cape Fear River above Fayetteville) that were going to continue to surge and/or back up into Lumberton.  And IIRC, there were issues of cars getting routed off I-95 on certain exits but not following the recommended detours and needed to get rescued on local streets.  It is my impression that NCDOT routed traffic over the highest elevation detour and closed down the rest for the duration of the flooding.

[Duke87]

Google Maps is just treating your link as getting from one place to another, and being 95 is currently the fastest route that's the way it's taking us.

Okay that's weird since it shows the route with my modification when I click it. Does this work?

If not, the route I had selected was:

Head east on I-95 N
315 ft
Take the exit onto I-74 E/US-74 E toward Wilmington
4.4 mi
Take exit 213 for NC-41 toward Lumberton/Fairmont
0.3 mi
Turn left onto NC-41 N
0.2 mi
Turn right onto Popes Crossing Rd
2.8 mi
Sharp left onto Alamac Rd
2.8 mi
Continue onto S Chestnut St
0.8 mi
Turn left onto E 2nd St
30 s (0.1 mi)
Turn right at the 2nd cross street onto N Water St
0.2 mi
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit and stay on N Water St
0.2 mi
Continue onto Carthage Rd
1.0 mi
Turn right
141 ft
Take the ramp onto I-95 N
0.1 mi
Merge onto I-95 N
Destination will be on the right