The Philippines is evacuating thousands of people, deploying soldiers and positioning emergency provisions as Super Typhoon Mangkhut threatens more than four million people in the north of the country. Mangkhut -- stronger than Hurricane Florence, which is currently lashing the US East Coast -- is expected to make landfall on the Philippines island of Luzon early on Saturday, September 15th. Current wind speeds are up to 285 kilometers per hour (180 mph). Mangkhut presents a more serious threat to life considering it will hit with stronger winds, over a larger area, and have higher storm surge. The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) said it expected a "high humanitarian impact based on the storm strength and the affected population in the past and forecasted 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. Our sister companies, MDA and Radiant Solutions, are also examining the data they can share to support the response.
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 in the DigitalGlobe StormWatch Bundle by contacting DigitalGlobe.
Please continue to check the site and our social media channels for updates on pre- and post-event data.