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Hacking storm recovery in the Rockaways

Ben Johnson Jun 13, 2013

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has laid out a $20 billion plan for fortifying his city against future giant storms like Sandy. The plan includes everything from installing storm surge barriers to setting resiliency requirements for telecom providers. Whether and when these 250 recommendations will be implemented remains to be seen. But some of the city’s tech-minded residents aren’t waiting around.

Jaime Jordan and Jessica Klein co-founded the group Rockaway Help, which is using tech to help rebuild their hard-hit beach community in Queens. Their Facebook group quickly became an important tool for residents after the storm hit last fall. The two women recently gathered engineers and residents to generate new ideas and build apps — a so-called hack jam — for the region. 

Jordan and Klein join Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson to discuss. Click on the audio player above to hear more.

 

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