Disaster Relief Resource Aggregator

Aggregates disaster relief resources (shelters, food distribution, medical services) from multiple official sources into a unified real-time feed. During emergencies, helps affected communities find help fast.

Why This Matters

• During disasters, information is scattered across dozens of sites
• People in crisis don't have time to check 20 different websites
• First responders need unified situational awareness
• This can literally save lives by connecting people to resources faster

Features

• Multi-Source Aggregation: FEMA, Red Cross, Feeding America, state emergency agencies
• Data Normalization: Standardizes addresses, services, hours across sources
• Fuzzy Deduplication: Merges duplicate listings from different sources
• Geocoding: Converts addresses to coordinates for mapping
• Multiple Output Formats: JSON, GeoJSON, RSS, Interactive HTML Map
• Webhook Notifications: Get notified when new resources are found

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
location	string	Area to search (city, county, state)	(required)
radiusMiles	integer	Search radius in miles (5-100)	25
disasterType	string	Type of emergency	"general"
resourceTypes	array	Types to include: shelter, food, medical, supplies	["shelter", "food", "medical"]
outputFormats	array	Output formats: json, geojson, rss, html	["json"]
webhookUrl	string	URL to notify when complete	null
proxyConfig	object	Proxy configuration	{}
maxConcurrency	integer	Max parallel requests	5
enabledSources	array	Filter which sources to crawl	all

Disaster Types

• hurricane - Hurricanes, tropical storms
• earthquake - Earthquakes
• wildfire - Wildfires
• flood - Floods, flash floods
• tornado - Tornadoes
• winter-storm - Winter storms, blizzards
• general - All disaster types

Output

JSON Output (OUTPUT key)

{
    "metadata": {
        "disasterType": "hurricane",
        "area": "Miami-Dade County, FL",
        "lastUpdated": "2024-12-18T14:30:00Z",
        "sourcesChecked": 5,
        "totalResources": 45
    },
    "resources": [
        {
            "id": "shelter-001",
            "type": "shelter",
            "name": "Miami Senior High School",
            "address": "2450 SW 1st St, Miami, FL 33135",
            "coordinates": { "lat": 25.7617, "lng": -80.2231 },
            "status": "open",
            "capacity": { "total": 500, "available": 234 },
            "services": ["shelter", "meals", "pet-friendly", "medical"],
            "hours": "24/7",
            "contact": { "phone": "(305) 555-1234" },
            "sources": ["red-cross", "miami-dade-emergency"]
        }
    ],
    "summary": {
        "byType": { "shelter": 12, "food": 18, "medical": 8 },
        "byStatus": { "open": 38, "closed": 5, "unknown": 2 },
        "openNow": 38
    }
}

GeoJSON Output (resources.geojson)

Standard GeoJSON FeatureCollection for use with mapping applications like Leaflet, Mapbox, or Google Maps.

RSS Feed (feed.rss)

Subscribe to updates. Each resource appears as an item with geo coordinates.

HTML Map (map.html)

Interactive map with filtering. Self-contained - just open in a browser.

Data Sources

Source	Coverage	Resource Types
FEMA	National	Shelters
American Red Cross	National	Shelters
Feeding America	National	Food Banks
State Emergency Agencies	State-specific	Shelters, Supplies

Example Usage

Basic Search

{
    "location": "Miami-Dade County, FL",
    "disasterType": "hurricane",
    "outputFormats": ["json", "html"]
}

Multi-State Search

{
    "location": "Gulf Coast",
    "radiusMiles": 100,
    "disasterType": "hurricane",
    "resourceTypes": ["shelter", "food", "medical", "supplies"],
    "outputFormats": ["json", "geojson", "html"]
}

With Webhook

{
    "location": "Los Angeles, CA",
    "disasterType": "wildfire",
    "webhookUrl": "https://your-app.com/webhook/disaster-updates",
    "outputFormats": ["json"]
}

Use Cases

1. Emergency Response Apps: Feed real-time resource data into mobile apps
2. Situation Rooms: Display on dashboards for emergency coordinators
3. Community Websites: Embed the HTML map on local news sites
4. Alert Systems: Use webhooks to trigger notifications
5. Research: Analyze disaster response patterns over time

Scheduling

For real-time updates during active disasters, schedule the actor to run frequently:

• Active disaster: Every 15-30 minutes
• Monitoring: Every 2-4 hours
• Post-disaster: Daily

Limitations

• Source websites may change structure, breaking extractors
• Some dynamic sites require Playwright (not yet implemented)
• Geocoding has rate limits (~1 request/second for free tier)
• Some sources may have delayed updates

Support

If you encounter issues or want to add new data sources, please open an issue on the project repository.