Congressional subcommittee criticizes Google pre-Katrina images

In December I was looking at the satellite images on New Orleans on Google Maps. At the time I was wondering how many trees were killed. I was expecting to see lots of brown patches. What I saw was all green, and a harbor full of sailboats at the West End. I was very confused by this and contacted a friend who knows alot about Google maps. He didn't have any answers. I believed my lying eyes and thought things on the ground in New Orleans were much better than they actually were (in spite of being in constant contact with family and friends in the city).

I'm still puzzled by all of this. Why was this done? And the hold on updated images appears to only cover only parts of Orleans and Jefferson. East of the Industrial Canal looked devestated (but perhaps this is how it looked pre-K ? :^)

This story was widely picked up by the international press. It is clearly a conspiracy of some sort. One guess is it was intended to help bring tourists back to the city. I don't know. It seems like bad judgement all around. But there seems to be no shortage of bad judgement these days.

Lawmakers Question Google's Pre-Katrina Images