As the East Coast is bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, the tech world is starting to focus on the essentials: Google, Facebook and others cancel their New York events, and a plethora of resources are popping up online that can be used to track the progress of the storm.
Here is some of the latest news on how the tech world is impacted by Sandy:
- Google announced Saturday that its Android event in New York has been canceled due to Hurricane Sandy. The company emailed reporters that it will provide further updates as soon as it knows more. It was widely believed that Google would use the event to announce a new LG Nexus 4 as well as a Nexus 10 tablet.
- Fellow tech bloggers Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg announced Sunday that their Dive Into Mobile conference, which was scheduled to be held in New York Monday and Tuesday, has been canceled as well. “We deeply apologize to attendees, presenters and sponsors, but the situation is truly out of our hands,” they wrote in an announcement blog post.
- Facebook cancelled its Gifts event, according to AllThingsD.
Here are some essential resources to track the hurricane:
- Google’s crisis response map shows the projected path of the hurricane, as well as live weather data, the location of emergency shelters and other useful information.
- Twitter updates: New Yorkers should turn on mobile notifications to get evacuation orders and other essential information from @NYCMayorsOffice delivered to their phone. Do it on Twitter, or simply text “Follow @NYCMayorsOffice” to 40404 for SMS alerts about Sandy. (hat tip to @kathrynyu and @marcprecipice)
- The National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center has some essential updates, including advisories and video briefings, on its site.
- The New York Times is tracking Sandy with a more simplified map.
- Speaking of the Times: Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have taken down the pay walls to allow free access to their sites throughout the storm.
- FlightAware lists canceled flights across the affected airports.
- The wind map may not be quite as useful, but it’s nonetheless an impressive visualization of current wind speeds across the U.S.
- Quartz has a list of live webcams from various places across the East Coast.
- Instacane.com tells the story of hurricane Sandy through Instagram.
We will update this list throughout the day with more relevant information. Please leave links in the comments if you stumble across other sites worth mentioning. And most importantly, everyone please stay safe!
