Inspiration
Houston experiences hurricanes, floods, freezes, and more. The prep information is out there, but it's dispersed and hard to use. We wanted to make one tool that gathers it all and actually works for everyone.
What it does
Houston Ready Hub offers Houstonians a simple way of preparing, responding, and recovering. It contains an AI assistant, real-time hospital and shelter information, multilingual support, and checklists that change based on your household and location. It even works offline so you're never without information.
How we built it
We developed it as a Progressive Web App using HTML, Tailwind, and JavaScript. Google Maps API powers shelter/medical mapping, and service workers enable offline access. We added Houston-specific details (OEM, flood warnings, power outages, etc.) so it's locally useful, not generic.
Challenges we faced
- Integrating multiple data sources and making it usable.
- Making it accessible across devices, languages, and users with different needs.
Building flows that will not overwhelm users in the case of a real disaster.
Accomplishments we're proud of
4-language support + accessibility out of the box.
Custom AI assistant that gives Houston-specific answers.
What we learned
Accessibility and simplicity are not add-ons, they're the core of emergency tech. We also learned more about PWA design, caching for offline capability, and the ugly side of working with civic data.
city organizations to turn this into a real resource for the city.
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