Modern technology has changed the ways of dealing with disasters and imposed new methods by rescuers of search and rescue operations after hurricanes and earthquakes.
But what happened in Florida a few days ago seems to be one of the distinguishing features in which the effects of high-tech technology combine with pure human coincidence, and the result is the saving of a helpless family life.
The story goes back several days, when Hurricane Michael destroyed several parts of northwest Florida, killing more than 18 people, and scores of people missing.
In these difficult circumstances, Amber G used the maps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to investigate the damage to her grandmother's property in the Yangtze area, surprising a scene that never came to mind.
What happened was that the word "HELP" or "help" was written on the grass between the trees dropped by the hurricane.
The besieged people wrote the word with the material they found in the area, in a desperate attempt to get out of a deadly trap.
Gee immediately told the rescuers, who rushed to the place and found her uncle, aunt and a close friend of the family, before being taken to safety.
Mike Aslaxin, head of remote sensing at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the incident "once again shows some of the multiple uses of this data."
The images that alerted Ji to the status of her relatives were taken from the survey planes, which flew over the affected areas as soon as the hurricane passed, before the images were assembled into an interactive map that anyone could search for and review.
It is noteworthy that the search for the missing in the wake of Michael's blow turned into a "search for dead" as hope faded to find more neighborhoods.
