Winter Storm Water Outage Map
Uncovering How Crowdsourced Data Creates Communication Between Neighbors in a Crisis
This past week, the most severe Winter Storm in decades ripped through communities and wreaked havoc on infrastructure across the South. People in Shreveport were seeking a way to communicate the status of their situation with their neighbors and city government.
ReForm Shreveport identified the desire of our neighbors to share this information and created a simple web form where Shreveport residents could voluntarily report their status. The form has three simple options: is your water running normal, is it running at low pressure, or is it not running at all? The results of this form were then collected and displayed on a live Water Outage Map.
Rapid Deployment, Instantaneous Feedback
ReForm Shreveport’s Luke Lee built the form and map in less than an hour using Goole Forms and Google Data Studio to transform submitted data into a visual map. The form was released at 10am on morning of Saturday, February 20th and the results were staggering. Within an hour, the form was shared hundreds of times on social media. Within 6 hours of launch, over 2000 individuals had reported the status of their water on an open map for all to see and thousands more viewed the live map online. Upon loading the data, it is immediately clear which neighborhoods have access to water and which ones do not. Down to the block level, data could be seen for which areas need repair service. The City of Shreveport took note of the data that ReForm was collecting and requested access so that it could aid their efforts.
The Big Picture: Connection with Our Neighbors
But the map revealed something much more than data points about infrastructure. This voluntary data collection effort underscores that communication with residents in a crisis is paramount and that effective dialogue is a two way street. People need to know that their voices are heard and needs can be communicated up the chain to decision makers. This is the future of how all residents can become more involved with their community.
ReForm Shreveport is at the cutting edge of creating a new way for people to change their city. When thousands of people get involved in making the community better, it always gets better. Sometimes that move is small, but building a community is like football — it’s a game of inches. Every step we take forward is one that makes this community better.