[Ninong]

Google has suddenly and mysteriously reverted to pre-Katrina images of devasted areas of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.

Many homeowners, who were displaced, used these Google satellite images to check on the progress, or lack thereof, of repairs to their neighborhoods. Some homeowners even printed out Google images of their property to use in insurance claims negotiations.

Now, all of a sudden, Google has switched to pre-Katrina images. Buildings that were totally destroyed in the hurricane now appear in all their former glory. Entire areas of New Orleans that are still almost exactly as they were just after the storm now appear as they were the day before the storm. Google seems to be having a hard time explaining why they made this change.

Excerpts:

Blue tarps that covered roofless homes are replaced by shingles. Homes wiped off their foundations are miraculously back in place in the Lower 9th. So, too, is the historic lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain.

But in the Lower 9th Ward, the truth isn't as pretty, 19 months after Katrina.

"Everything is missing. The people are missing. Nobody is there," Henry said.


Google has become a go-to service for people looking for up-close satellite imagery.

"I use it on a regular basis in my class," said Craig Colten, a geographer at Louisiana State University who has written extensively on New Orleans. He called Google's switch "unbelievable."

"I'm sure the mayor is thrilled," he quipped.

[schrocat]

That's kinda disturbing.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

That's kinda disturbing.

Yeah, Congress thinks it's disturbing, too.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Google's replacement of post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its map portal with images of the region before the storm does a "great injustice" to the storm's victims, a congressional subcommittee said.

The House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight on Friday asked Google Inc. Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company is using the outdated imagery.

"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," subcommittee chairman Brad Miller, D-N.C., wrote in a letter to Schmidt.

Swapping the post-Katrina images and the ruin they revealed for others showing an idyllic city dumbfounded many locals and even sparked suspicions that the company and civic leaders were conspiring to portray the area's recovery progressing better than it is.

Andrew Kovacs, a Google spokesman, said the company had received the letter but Schmidt had no immediate response.

After Katrina, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and hurricane victims anxious to see whether their homes were damaged.

Now, though, a virtual trip through New Orleans is a surreal experience of scrolling across a landscape of packed parking lots and marinas full of boats.

Reality, of course, is very different: Entire neighborhoods are now slab mosaics where houses once stood and shopping malls, churches and marinas are empty of life, many gone altogether.

[...]

Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery.

P.S. -- It's not just New Orleans. Google did the same thing for the Mississippi Gulf Coast region that was devasted by Katrina. If Google can show that they reverted to images more than 19 months old all over the country, then it wouldn't look sinister; but if it turns out that we're the only areas of the country to revert to antediluvian images, then somebody requested it.


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"I'm a strong proponent of the restoration of the wetlands, for a lot of reasons. There's a practical reason, though, when it comes to hurricanes: The stronger the wetlands, the more likely the damage of the hurricane." -- George W. Bush, discussing post-Katrina wetland improvements, New Orleans, March 1, 2007.

[Ninong]

Last night, Google went back to post-Katrina 2006 images of New Orleans. Some Mississippi Gulf Coast towns -- Waveland, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis -- are still showing up as peaceful, intact communities even though they were literally wiped off the map by Katrina. Maybe Google will get around to "fixing" their images next.

Google said they don't understand what all the fuss is about. They switched the images back in September 2006 and they're surprised that people are just now complaining about the change. They claim the reason they went back to images from before the August 29, 2005 storm was because those old images were higher resolution.

Google doesn't seem to understand that higher resolution images of neighborhoods that no longer exist might be great for historians but not very helpful to anyone wanting up-to-date information.