Hurricane Willa, once a category 3 hurricane, has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it heads across Mexico. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, forecasters expect the storm to bring life-threatening storm surge, wind and heavy rainfall. After making landfall, flooding, damaged roofs and power outages have been reported. As much as 18 inches of rain are expected in parts of the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa. The topographical transition from beach to mountainous areas only increases the risk of flash floods and landslides. Mexican President Nieto is calling on the National Systems of Civil Protection to take all necessary steps to protect those in the storm’s path.
When crises like this occur, DigitalGlobe is committed to supporting the humanitarian community and fulfilling Maxar’s purpose of Building a Better World by providing critical and actionable information to assist response efforts. As part of our Open Data Program, DigitalGlobe will publicly release data of the affected areas to support disaster response as it becomes available.
Any imagery or data distributed through the Open Data Program is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 license (CC BY-NC 4.0). This licensing allows for non-commercial use of the information, meaning it can quickly be integrated into first responder workflows with organizations like Team Rubicon, the Red Cross and other non-profits. If commercial companies are interested in using the data distributed through the Open Data Program, it can be purchased by contacting DigitalGlobe.
Pre-event imagery has been posted on our Open Data Program website. Please continue to check this site and our social media channels for updates on post-event data.
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Pre-event imagery of Mexico.[/caption]