Emergency Resource Locator

Emergency Resource Locator helps users quickly find nearby hospitals, shelters, pharmacies, and emergency services during crises, showing distance, hours, and availability on an interactive map.

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Inspiration & What It Does

Weather can be tough to predict, and disasters even more so. That is why, during Gainesville's most unpredictable weather season, we created an Emergency Resource Locator to improve access to life-saving information when you need it most. Our platform directs the user to the nearest resources based on the disaster at hand, using the user's live location and timely updates from nearby resources.

How We Built It

The basis of the project is using an open data resource called Leaflet, a JavaScript library for mobile-friendly user interactive maps. We also input geographic data from OpenStreetMap, allowing us to rely on community-maintained data that promotes informed access.

Challenges We Ran Into

One of our main challenges was finding the right balance between a clean, visually appealing UI and the straightforward functionality required in an emergency setting. Since users may be under stress and need to make quick decisions, we had to ensure the platform provided clear and useful guidance without unnecessary distractions. Another challenge was keeping our project cost friendly, we open sourced our API's and Maps to ensure that our website was inexpensive and effective to implement. The last challenge we encountered was making it mobile friendly so users on cell phones can access our location-first, community-powered web application.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We created a tailored version for each type of disaster possible in Florida: flood, hurricane, tornado, and possible outages. For every situation, the user will receive scenario-specific instructions guiding them with steps to take and what to look out for in their respective scenario.

What we learned

We each learned a lot from each other, from getting exposure to new languages to finding new ways of implementing resources into our code.

What's next for Emergency Resource Locator

To further our social impact, we aim to develop Emergency Resource Locator into an offline-capable mobile app, ensuring access even when internet connectivity is unavailable. We also wish to implement an SMS feature that allows users to share live updates and locations with emergency contacts, expanding accessibility to users without smartphones or stable data connections.

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