Google, the company’s popular map portal has unexplainably replaced post-Hurricane Katrina satellite images with shots taken prior to the storm’s devastation.  Many locals displaced by Katrina which struck Aug. 29, 2005, flooding an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans, have expressed outrage and the controversial glitch has many thinking conspiracy.  

After Katrina, residents of the devastated regions relied on Google’s satellite images to remotely determine whether their homes were damaged.  Other’s used the images as further proof to show insurance companies so they could collect on claims.  But now if you browse through New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast everything is back to normal; the homes, streets, roofs, marinas, boats, bridges, parks are all there again.  

Chikai Ohazama, a Google Inc. product manager for satellite imagery, said the maps are the best currently available. Numerous factors decide what goes into the databases, “everything from resolution, to quality, to when the actual imagery was acquired.”  Ohazama, however could not explain why or when the current images replaced the Post-Katrina shots.   

 

If there is an ulterior motive here, what is it?  I’m a conspiracy theorist so I’m sure there’s something slick is up.  Could it be that insurance companies are loosing claim battles because of the hard-and-fast evidence provided by Google? Could it be that wealthy developers are planning redistricting and will begin claiming properties that once belonged to their less wealthy neighbors in the devastated 9th ward?  Naturally, destroying the current satellite images would only help the developers to annex the land.   Perhaps the mayor, federal government or prospecting presidential candidates will begin a public relations campaign to convince the country that conditions are improving and the images will disprove such claims.  What do you think?