How Google is Transforming Disaster Relief is a story about their efforts born of a "single individual" doing what they could to try to help. I recommend it to your reading.
Mapping is of course one of the tools that Google brings to the table. With maps, just like I shared recently about what esri is doing, we have spatial information that allows us to grasp those aspects of a disaster that cannot be understood by reading a situation report or seeing numbers on a spreadsheet.
We need to be thinking about our public-private partnerships when it comes to disasters. Gaining and maintaining contact with the private sector is not that easy. Like every other relationship it takes time and effort.
Diane Newman shared the link to to the Google article.
