Google Tells Feds How to get Emergency Info to the Top of Search Results

Offering relevant information in open, machine-readable formats may be the most important thing government can do to keep the public informed during a natural disaster, Google and other technology leaders told members of Congress.

When a natural disaster such as 2012’s Hurricane Sandy hits, federal, state and local government agencies are often the best source for trusted information about the storm’s path or the location of shelters and other services. People in the path of those storms, however, are much more likely to seek information on Google and other private sector platforms. Google received about 15 million queries for Sandy-related information in the days before, during and after the storm, Matthew Stepka, vice president of the tech giant’s social impact arm Google.org told members of the House Homeland Security Committee’s panel on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. That compares with about 740,000 visitors to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Sandy pages, 71,000 visitors to the main governmentwide Sandy page at USA.gov and about 2.8 million visitors to a governmentwide widget that directed visitors to five main lines of government information about Sandy, according to a lessons learned report on the superstorm and social media released by the Homeland Security Department.