Hurricane Delta started hitting parts of Louisiana and Texas early Friday, October 9, as the National Hurricane Center warned that preparations should be rushed to completion. The coast is expected to see tropical-storm-force winds and when they do, it will be dangerous to prepare for the Category 3 storm – or impossible to complete them, said forecasters. Delta is forecast to make landfall in Louisiana Friday afternoon, apparently in the same southwestern part of the state where Hurricane Laura hit six weeks ago. It is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, which could be as high as 11 feet in some places. The hurricane moved through the Mexican resort areas of Cozumel and Cancun this week where it caused some streets to collapse and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
When crises like this occur, Maxar is committed to supporting the humanitarian community by providing critical and actionable information to assist response efforts and fulfilling our purpose, For a Better World. As part of our Open Data Program, Maxar will publicly release data of the affected areas to support response efforts 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 nonprofits. If commercial companies are interested in using the data distributed through the Open Data Program, it can be purchased by contacting us here.
Imagery has been posted on our Open Data Program website. Please continue to check this site and our social media channels for updates on additional post-event data.
Holly Beach, Cameron, Louisiana showing the destruction after Hurricane Delta. Satellite image from October 11, 2020.