Comparing Hurricane Disasters: Sandy vs. Katrina

Comparing Disasters: Sandy vs. Katrina from The Huffington Post does a good job of clearly walking through the data to put the two mega-storm hurricanes into perspective.  Designed by Tim Wallace and Jaweed Kaleem, 

Over 100 people have died in the U.S. alone so far from Hurricane Sandy, and concerns are mounting that with hundreds of thousands still without power in frigid temperatures, the death toll will continue to climb. As the East Coast examines the destruction, comparisons have been made to other catastrophic storms.

Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005, killed over 1,800 people and cost nearly $125 billion. Both storms were deadly, destructive and devastating to the thousands who lost their homes and livelihoods. View the infographic below to see how they compare by the numbers.

Editor’s note: This infographic has been updated to to reflect new and more comprehensive data on the number of people displaced or who will potentially be displaced by Hurricane Sandy-related damage, including people in shelters and people who are not in shelters but have had to leave their homes.

This infographic design does a great job using simple data visualizations to compare the two hurricanes with visual styles that are quick and easy for the reader to understand.  I’m especially impressed with the effective use of the grid of squares visualization method.  Although normally used in blocks of 100 to show percentages, they are stacked in this design to show quantitative comparisons.  They correctly kept each row to only 10 squares, which many designers get wrong.  Our number system is base-10, so it’s incredibly easy for us to understand visuals that are stack of 10 objects.

I also appreciate that they varied the visuals to appropriately match the type of data being shown.  So, circles to show diameter, map locations to show areas effected and stacked bars are all used along with the grid of squares method.

The overall design has a white background, with no border, so when shown on a webpage that also has a white background, it’s hard to see where the infographic stops.  I usually recommend some type of background color or frame to help the infographic stand out on its own.

At the bottom, a couple elements are missing.  A Copyright or Creative Commons claim, and the URL for readers to find the original, full-size version when they see the infographic shared on other sites.

Hurricanes Since 1851

Science meets art in the Hurricanes Since 1851 infographic from John Nelson, IDV Solutions, on UXBlog. The infographic maps out storm paths and wind speeds of hurricanes since 1851.  The photo is the projection view of the globe from the south pole perspective.

Ok, here’s a bottoms-up view of known tropical storms and hurricanes dating back to 1851.  The fine folks at NOAA keep an archive of storm paths with wind speed, storm name, date, among other attributes, and are always updating and refining information for past events based on historical evidence and educated hunches.  The data are awesome and they make it available in several formats.  Here’s what it looks like slapped onto a polar projection (looking up at Antarctica) with point color tied to intensity…

A couple of things stood out to me about this data…

1) Structure.
Hurricanes clearly abhor the equator and fling themselves away from the warm waters of their birth as quickly as they can.  Paging Dr. Freud.
The void circling the image is the equator.  Hurricanes can never ever cross it.

2) Detection.
Detection has skyrocketed since satellite technology but mostly since we started logging storms in the eastern hemisphere.  Also the proportionality of storm severity looks to be getting more consistent year to year with the benefit of more data.

Data visualization design reveals patterns and makes data understandable, and this is a huge, effective data visualization.

Thanks to Renee for sending in the link!

A Disaster for FEMA

The team at DigitalSurgeons has taken it upon themselves to design the FEMA on Warning Watch infographic that looks at how 2011 (through Spetember 14th) is draining all of the FEMA funds.

We’re obsessed with data and showcasing it in a way that anyone can digest. This was unsolicited by anyone, and we just wanted to raise awareness for how much of a reality FEMA exceeding their expense budget on natural disasters was.

After our office was shaken up by the East Coast Earthquake and pelted with rain by Hurricane Irene, we got to thinking about the freak weather being experienced across the country, and the bigger question of how the damage was being paid for. As it turns out, FEMA is starting to ask itself the same question. We created an infographic that outlines the damage caused in the wake of the natural disasters that have ravaged the country and the amount of money being spent to clean up after them.

They’ve also gone one step farther, and created the SorryMotherNature.com site where anyone can pledge to make a difference.

Please share this post and help spread the word.

Fuel Poverty with the Over-60 Crowd in England

Click for larger image

EDITED by request of the source:

From Blueclawsearch.co.uk, a great use of infographics in your marketing strategy is in coordination with a press release to help communicate a message to your audience. 

The press release was of course sent out to the normal sources, but the infographic can have a life of its own.  The infographic has the additional ability to reach their audience directly, and be shared on the Internet in ways that a press release never would.

Here’s the press release that went out in conjunction with the infographic:

PRESS RELEASE for immediate release

DATE: 3rd February 2011

Blueclaw Highlights Study on Fuel Poverty Amongst Over 60s in England

This infographic created with the intention of providing a visual impact of how the elderly over 60s are coping in the freezing winter months. These figures are from a recent study on fuel poverty and the over 60s in England*.

Fuel poverty is a real and rising problem in England - 4.6 million people aged over 60 are worried about being to afford heating bills. Furthermore, 1 in 3 over 60’s had to resort to drastic measures to fend off the cold, such as going to a public library. Also according to the study, winter deaths between 2009 and 2010 have totalled more than 23,000.

Too many times and too often, statistics and data from important studies are ignored not because the findings are not urgent, but because most people find it hard to process numbers and jargon easily. AgeUK has recently done a study on how fuel poverty is affecting the over 60s in the UK. This infographic was designed by Blueclaw, to create a visual impact of the study. This social awareness campaign coincides with Fuel Poverty Awareness Day (11th February), a national awareness-raising media and public affairs campaign with an aim to urge MPs to focus their surgeries that week, on helping those who are in or at risk of fuel poverty.

*Study taken from: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/archive/poorest-over-60s-twice-as-likely-to-dread-the-cold-as-the-richest-says-age-uk/

More info on Fuel Poverty Awareness Day: http://www.nea.org.uk/fuel-poverty-awareness-day-2011/

I do have a couple issues with the infographic design itself.  Why are the squares that are “2X and 3X as likely” the same size?  Why is 1/3” represented in a solid circle (looks like a pie chart, so it should show a 1/3 slice)?  The grid of 17 houses representing 1.7 million is 6 houses across, which is hard for most readers to comprehend.  We live in a base-10 world, so the grid should be 5 houses wide.

Effing Hail, The isometric infographic game!

"Effing Hail" is a cool web game you play in your browser from Intuition Games!  The isometric animation is very reminiscent of the Royskopp video for "Remind Me".  You control the wind to hold the hail in the air so it continues to grow in size before releasing it to crush the objects below.

Found on Information Aesthetics and a bunch of Tweets on Twitter!