disaster

The human-focused startups of the hellfire

Disasters may not always be man-made, but they are always responded to by humans. There’s a whole panoply of skills and professions required today to respond to even the tiniest emergency, and that

A mesh network spontaneously erupts in the US and helps connect Puerto Rico

When goTenna put out their Mesh device earlier this year, I thought the off-grid gadgets would be great for an emergency kit or back-country hike. But it turns out that I underestimated the demand for

Facebook centralizes its crisis response tools in a new hub called Crisis Response

Facebook today is announcing a new feature called Crisis Response, designed to make it easier for people to find out more about recent crises and access various to tools to support recovery, including

Google Introduces “Gmail Blue” — It’s Completely Blue, Because Brown Was a “Disaster”

The Google April Fool’s train continues with the announcement of “Gmail Blue.” Yes, it’s a version of Google’s email service where everything is the color blue. The YouTu

Microsoft Launches HelpBridge For iOS, Windows Phone And Android, Lets You Alert Friends And Family When Disasters Strike

When a disaster happens, chances are you want to get in touch with your loved ones as soon as possible, either to tell them that you're fine or to make sure they are. To make this easier, Microsoft is

Letting Data Die A Natural Death

<img src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cave-drawing-180x180.jpg" width="180" height="180" /> The <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-sidekick-disaster-microsofts-

Contest: Win History's "Engineering Disasters" DVD set

Here are some shows where you can really see some gear crunch. They’re part of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels series, which cover (as you may expect) the major works, megastructures,

Rescue Dog to the rescue!

I live in an earthquake zone. It is called Seattle. We don’t have many rumblers here, but when we do, they’re pretty serious. Just a few years ago the mighty Nisqually quake dropped the bl

Hunker Down with the Vector Tough Brite Storm Tracker

These things look ridiculous, but they’re such an immense utility for everybody, especially those of us who live in disaster prone areas (like me). Aside from looking like something out of a bad