New Phone App to Help Residents Record and Recover From Flood Damage

A new smartphone application from the North Dakota State University Extension Service will help North Dakotans and others record and recover from flood damage. The Disaster Recovery Journal is available free through the Android market.

The Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) allows people to use a tool they probably evacuated with: their smartphone.

The app lets users record information about damages as they enter their flooded homes using text, images and audio. The app uses the smartphone’s camera feature to capture photos to illustrate the flood damage. Users then can enter descriptions of damaged items or use their smartphone’s voice recorder to record an audio description of the damage. These details and photos are essential for possible insurance and/or government reimbursement.

The Disaster Recovery Journal also provides NDSU Extension Service information on how to clean or deal with flood-damaged appliances and electronics; carpets and floors; clothing and fabrics; food; furniture; gardens and landscapes; home structures; household items; mold; papers, books and photos; and water.

“DRJ was designed to help people record the damage to their physical property and collect it in one place,” says Bob Bertsch, NDSU Agriculture Communication Web technology specialist. “We did our best to leverage the capabilities of today’s smartphones to help people record their losses. We hope the app will help in their recovery.”

The app was developed by Myriad Devices, a company based in the NDSU Research and Technology Park incubator and founded by NDSU Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty and students. The NDSU Extension Service provided design and content input, and funded the project, in cooperation with University of Minnesota Extension, through U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Smith-Lever Special Needs grants.

For more information about the app, visit http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/extension/apps/disaster-recovery-journal.

NDSU Agriculture Communication - July 7, 2011