The website features data (more than 100 sets) that can be sorted by type of disaster — earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, severe winter weather, tornadoes and wildfires — as well as tools and apps, and information about how to get involved or join challenges like the current Innovator Challenge, which calls for ideas on how to reduce flooding fatalities.
The Innovator Challenge listed as of the date of this report is the first in a series that are intended to highlight the needs of the disaster preparedness community.
The website was born from the White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative, a project launched in response to Hurricane Sandy that aims to turn technology into empowering tools that can save lives. The initiative has manifested in the form of a hardware hackathon for disaster preparedness and partnerships with both the private and public sectors, but this portal represents the first unified online resource for such efforts.
