NOAA has an outfit which flies and takes aerial imagery after hurricanes hit to collect important data about the damage these storms cause. Google first worked with this team after Hurricane Katrina hit and the release of the imagery helped many people in response to the disaster. Now Google has once again worked with NOAA and released a Hurricane Ike Google Earth overlay 
showing new imagery taken after the storm. You can compare the current Google Earth imagery (from before the storm) with the newer NOAA imagery taken after the storm hit. To do this, select the “Hurricane Ike 2008” folder and drag the slider below the Places pane which changes transparency. You can visit NOAA’s Hurricane Ike Response page for more information. Here’s a sample comparing before and after:
There is also similar imagery available for Hurricane Gustav
from a few weeks ago.via GoogleLatLong.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
I visited Padre Island National Seashore yesterday. They have a lot of debris along the 70+ miles of Gulf shoreline from Ike and I went there to help pick up some. A lot of people have done that.
I was told by a park ranger that a “debris island” from Ike is headed across the Gulf toward the National Seashore. Is there any way that this can be tracked through Google earth? I am assuming it was reported by boats in the Gulf.
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