StormWatch

Inspiration

We were all distraught during the Woolsey Fires when we had to leave our homes and everything we knew. So we turned to the news to see if our homes were still standing. Frustratingly, the news was not specific enough for us and many others who were forced to evacuate.

What it does

StormWatch is a user fueled website that is made is made by people who care about their homes and loved ones just as much as you do! Users can log specific GPS locations of where they spot disasters made convenient using Google Map's interface. Our hopes are that with enough users StormWatch will be the most accurate and reliable source for disaster location.

How we built it

We made StormWatch using technology pioneered by Google, and some HTML and JavaScript.

Challenges we ran into

Some of our original goals were to make an IOS app that would make it for users to log disasters. However, none of us were experienced with Xcode or the Swift language. After wasting hours of precious time trying to make our mobile app we decided to switch it to a web-based app for now.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of making a working website within the given time limit despite having no experience in the web and mobile development fields. We are all proud of having made a product that can make a positive effect on our society.

What we learned

Whilst we did not accomplish our original goal of making an app for the iPhone, we learned a ton about the Xcode environment and the Swift programming language. After switching to web development we are proud of learning lots about JavaScript and HTML. But above all, we learned that teamwork and perseverance can conquer any obstacles that get in our way.

What's next for StormWatch

In the future, we hope to incorporate StormWatch to mobile platforms as well as smoothing out the user experience to make it more streamlined. Some technical features we are hoping to add are a time-based priority on each of the pins/reports, fact-checking false reports, also notifications to alert if a storm is near you.