Wildfires in Australia caused over 130 deaths and a great deal of damage this weekend.  Some fires are still burning, too, and Google's played an important role in letting people keep track of the different hotspots.

A post on the Official Google Australia Blog explains that the company "pulled together a Flash Map, containing the latest up-to-date information about fire locations and their status from the Country Fire Authority (CFA).  The Flash Map is updated in real-time from the CFA website via an RSS feed."

As a result, the CFA site has been spared a great deal of traffic and probably a few crashes.  Officials, emergency personnel, and people in fire-affected areas have perhaps been able to make more informed decisions.

Google provided links to other resources, as well.  Information about road closures and fires on public land is available from VicRoads and the Department of Sustainability and Environment, respectively (these sites may be traffic-sensitive).  Then, "The teams at news.com.au and theage.com.au have created useful My Maps on Google Maps, containing news and information about major fires and casualties."

Here's hoping all of this is resolved before Google comes up with many more ways to help.

Source: www.webpronews.com