Inspiration
Flood emergencies can become dangerous when warnings arrive late, people are unsure which routes are safe, shelters are difficult to find, and responders do not have a connected view of who needs help. We wanted to bring these steps together into one simple emergency flow.
What it does
PreFlood is an intelligent flood early-warning and evacuation platform that helps users understand flood risk, receive actionable warnings, get a safety window, find safer routes and shelters, confirm their safety, or request responder assistance.
How we built it
We built a functional web prototype using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Flask, and SQLite, with weather/environment data, GPS/location services, and map-based routing concepts. The system connects users, responders, and shelter administration through a single workflow.
Challenges we ran into
The main challenge was designing an emergency experience that stays simple when users may be under pressure. We also had to connect risk information, warnings, evacuation routes, shelter availability, safety confirmation, and responder assistance into one continuous flow.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We created a working prototype that brings the complete emergency journey into one platform:
Risk → Warning → Safety Window → Evacuation → Shelter → I AM SAFE / I NEED HELP
We are especially proud of connecting the user, responder, and shelter-management sides of the concept.
What we learned
We learned that an emergency platform needs more than just prediction or alerts. The information has to lead users toward a clear action, while also keeping responders and shelter information connected.
What's next for PreFlood
We plan to improve PreFlood with more accurate live weather and hydrological data, stronger real-time responder coordination, multilingual and voice-based accessibility, improved offline support, and deeper integration with shelters and local emergency authorities.
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