(Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long Blog)
We’ve been closely following the news about the damage from the magnitude 6.3 earthquake on February 22. We recently published new satellite imagery over the affected area to show an aerial view of the impact. To view this high-resolution imagery, courtesy of our partners at GeoEye, download this KML and explore it in Google Earth. You can also have a look at this Picasa album of before and after shots. Here’s an example of what you’ll see:
Before and after shots of the central business district. The north-south street is Manchester Street.
As a response to this recent catastrophic event, our Crisis Response team also worked quickly to get important information, relevant news and helpful resources to those affected by the disaster and those following developments in New Zealand. We released Person Finder three hours after the earthquake to help people connect with their loved ones. We hope this new updated satellite imagery is valuable for aid workers and the public for illustrating the extent of the damage.