Makes for some interesting first.

I’ve been following the Katrina aftermath this week and today, watching CNN, I noticed something familiar. One reporter used Google Earth, live, in his report of what happened to downtown New Orleans. Highlighting, zooming in, several parts of the stricken city to discuss what has happened. In the mean time swapping between GE & current footage.

Amidst the human tragedy that’s still going on, this was one of the things that struck me.

(Sorry, no screenshots.)

Update: Google Earth Hacks has a special page with all the ‘Hurricane Katrina and Flooding’ placemarks. There’s also a forum discussing all the material that’s available in GE.

We will attempt to keep these files updated with the latest aerial photos showing the flooded areas of New Orleans, to help residents of the area to stay informed.

Update 2: Via the Google Blog I found these additional links. 1. The special Katrina page at earth.google.com with overlays for GE. Some instructions here. 2. For people without GE there’s this special Katrina Google Maps page. (Originating article.)
Furthermore there are the Flickr Katrina & New Orleans tags showing related pictures.