Hurricane Sandy's impacts upon senior women

Superstorm Sandy had far-reaching effects upon all of the communities which it impacted. The contemporaneous impacts upon Senior Citizens in New York City and their networks of supportive services were challenging to track and manage. The GIS work of a volunteer team which combined the expertise of Medical, Public Health & Technology experts was published as part of a Google.org response initiative.(1)(2)

This paper revisits that initial work and updates the analysis to focus on Senior Women. It combines open data layers with Volunteered Geographic Information to particularly consider the following:

*The majority of New York City Seniors are women (USCensus, 2010). In this emergency, are the post-disaster impacts different for women than for men? *How were the special needs of Senior Women addressed? (eg Grandmothers who are primary care givers for their minor grandchildren) *What public-facing initiatives have been most successful in restoring the impacted communities? *Are there best practices and lessons learned which can be carried forward to improve outcomes in these emergencies?

Geographic Information Systems, open data and technologies can broadly support communities in crisis. These same data can help characterize near and longer-term impacts on Senior Women and others who may be especially vulnerable. This paper will discuss how can we utilize these resources with citizens to improve outcomes for women, seniors and all of our neighbors.

1. "Google's Crisis Response Team: Hurricane Sandy Interactive Map."(2012) 2. “Crisis Mapping of Senior Services and Social Media Use In Response To Hurricane Disaster” Dombrowski, Giencke, Shen and Vaughan.(Pending)