Google goes back to Pre-Katrina Maps

Google Maps shows all is well known areas in New Orleans, no damaged homes, streets and trees are back.

Google's popular map portal has replaced post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery with pictures taken before the storm, leaving locals feeling like they're in a time loop and even fueling suspicions of a conspiracy.

Scroll across the city and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and everything is back to normal: Marinas are filled with boats, bridges are intact and parks are filled with healthy, full-bodied trees. Hurricane Katrina completely wiped the coastal areas of Mississippi Gulf Coast, so the Google Maps should show the current conditions either the rebuilding efforts or missing roads and homes, but instead it shows maps before Aug, 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck. You can see the Map here. Even though more than 80% of the properties were wiped out. When one looks the maps now, who don't live in this areas will think the city has redeveloped quickly, but that is not the case. Same thing is seen in the New Orleans area, all clean with the houses and trees intact though 80% of it was destroyed completely. This thing was noticed only recently before others were able to see the current situation. The maps were switched suddenly to older maps. One of the New Orleans resident said this :"Come on," said an incredulous Ruston Henry, president of the economic development association in New Orleans' devastated Lower 9th Ward. "Just put in big bold this: 'Google, don't pull the wool over the world's eyes. Let the truth shine.'" Chikai Ohazama, Google's product manager for satellite imagery, said the maps now available are the best the company can offer. The map pictures are decided from a number of factors, resolution of the picture, quality, when the picture was taken. If that is the case, Google must be giving less points to when the picture was taken. He said he was not sure when the current images replaced with older views, which is hard to believe Google must have complete records for it. In the images available Thursday, the cranes working to fix the breach of the 17th Street Canal are gone. Blue tarps that covered roofless homes are replaced by shingles. Homes wiped off their foundations are miraculously back in place in the Lower 9th. So, too, is the historic lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain. Ruston Henry when he watched all these in the map, he couldn't believe what he saw, he said even today most of them are missing, people are missing, in fact nobody is there. These maps were constantly used by the Katrina survivors to see the damage on their towns and homes. But in the Lower 9th Ward, the truth isn't as pretty, 19 months after Katrina. "Everything is missing. The people are missing. Nobody is there," Henry said. After Katrina, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and hurricane victims anxious to see whether their homes were damaged. This rosier version of the New Orleans in Google maps is seen by the residents as a move by the local politicians to make current New Orleans sort of like virtual Potemkin Village. Potemkin villages were, purportedly, fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. Pete Gerica, a fisherman who lives in eastern New Orleans, said he printed pictures of his waterside homestead from Google to use in his arguments with insurance adjusters. He said the Politicians might be trying to impress the tourism industry or others and paint a rosy picture of New Orleans. He also said, that Google might be behind this conspiracy and these map changes looks curious. Ceeon Quiet, spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin, said the Mayor didn't request the maps change. Ohazama also said, that he was not requested by any to change the satellite imagery, but added that Google gets frequent request to make changes in the map from users and governments. Craig Colten, a geographer at Louisiana State University, who has written many papers on New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, said he is using the maps for a long time to help his teaching. When he saw the switch to older maps, he was dumbfounded. He quipped in the end, Mayor Nagin will be happy to see this picture. There is a fellow DJ user in New Orleans, Americangeiko, she has written a few articles here how things are as bad as ever even after two years and how developments are slow. Google Maps should fix this problem otherwise they will get a bad rap.