malaysia

Google Earth Imagery Updates: Flooding and Factory Fire

June 5, 2017

Today we are having a look at three different floods and a factory fire.

Dominican Republic
In late April and early May, the Dominican Republic and neighbouring Haiti experienced heavy rainfall. There is a DigitalGlobe image captured on April 29th showing a region around Santo Domingo, the capital of the Domincan Republic:

Flooding to the north of Santo Domingo.

Malaysia
In January this year Malaysia experienced severe flooding, forcing 23,000 people from their homes. According to Wikipedia severe flooding is a near yearly occurrence in Malaysia. Worst affected were the north-eastern provinces Kelantan and Terengganu. The image below is from Kelantan. It is often hard to tell in rice growing regions what is abnormal flooding and what is deliberately flooded rice fields. In the region pictured, the houses appear to be on higher ground and appear to be mostly dry. We have included an older image for comparison as we initially mistook the local canals for flooded roads.

San Jose, California.
In February, Coyote Creek overflowed in San Jose, California, resulting in evacuations of thousands of people. The image is black and white and we could only find one location that shows signs of flooding:

Flooding in San Jose, California.

Factory fire in the Philippines
In February, a factory caught fire near General Trias, the Philippines, injuring more than a hundred workers and resulting in at least five fatalities.

Factory fire in the Philippines.

To find the above locations in Google Earth, download this KML file. We have included outlines of relevant imagery and a couple of placemarks for other interesting sights we found while exploring the areas.

Mongolia gets Street View

July 27, 2015

Google has recently added Mongolia to the list of countries with Street View. Read more about it on Google’s LatLong blog. There have also been some major additions in Malaysia on the Island of Borneo. Previous major additions this year were Madagascar and Canadian parks in May and Greenland in February.

Extent of Street View in Mongolia.

Extent of Street View in Malaysia

Street View changes between June 22nd, 2015 and July 25th, 2015 (new Street View in red). Larger version here.

Street View captured Lake Khuvsgul Ice Festival. Fly there in Google Earth with this KML file

Argentina and Malaysia now in Street View

September 26, 2014

Argentina has just been added to Street View and there has been a significant increase in the coverage in Malaysia. Thanks to GEB reader Dave for letting us know. Earlier in the Week, the territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands were added. Thanks to GEB readers Martin and Kyle. GEB reader Dave also tells us some locations in the US have been added, including Mason and Grand Ledge, Michigan. If you know of any other areas, please let us know in the comments.

Street View coverage in Argentina and Malaysia.

The last major update we reported were the additions of Cambodia and Indonesia last month. Google, as far as we are aware, do not publish a list of changes, but they do have a map of the current coverage. Wikipedia maintains a useful timeline of updates.

Despite being recently released, a few locations in Argentina contain historical Street View. According to Wikipedia Google announced in September 2013 that Street View would be coming to Argentina, so it appears that the cars have been driving for the past year, as confirmed by the dates for the location below.

This location in Buenos Aires was photographed eight times in the last year.

See the seasons change in historical Street View.