WASHINGTON - eTradeWire -- According to news reports, thousands of people whose houses were in the several zones ravaged by the various Los Angeles fires have no idea whether their homes were somehow largely spared, totally destroyed, or something in between, and they are waiting many hours if not overnight in cars hoping to be able to possibly just get a quick look at their former residences.

But officials are very reluctant to let many of them return even briefly, pointing out the very serious dangers of some fires or embers still smouldering, downed electrical power lines, explosive natural and propane gas escaping, and the ever-present concern about looting.

There have been a few suggestions about government officials trying to provide videotapes of the fire zones, but this is a very complex problem for anyone without extensive experience to try to undertake.

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But there is one entity which could provide extensive views of all streets in the affected areas, probably in less than one or two days, says professor John Banzhaf, an MIT-educated inventor.

Google has successfully used its specialized vehicles known as Street View cars to provide house-by-house and street-by-street views of virtually all of the U.S. The cars are equipped with multiple high-resolution cameras to take pictures.  At the same time, the vehicles automatically collect GPS data to precisely determine their location at any given time.

Google also employs sophisticated algorithms to process and stitch the pictures and location data together seamlessly.

Banzhaf points out that all of these vehicles, systems, and know how already exist, and have proven to operate virtually flawlessly, something Los Angeles and/or California could not possible do in months, much less weeks or days.

Even years ago, Google's Street View cars were able to view and photograph over 20 miles of streets in one day, so even a few such vehicles should be able to provide clear pictures of all the houses and former houses in the fire zones almost immediately, thereby enabling former residents to have some of the information they so desperate to obtain.

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Such pictures would also enable government officials to better estimate the damage, and for the insured and their company to begin the process of making and documenting claims, argues Banzhaf

Banzhaf reports that he has contacted key executives at Google, and asked the corporate giant to either drive or fly a sufficient number of Street View cars to cover the fire zones in a day.  He also requested that Google also provide the personnel and support equipment necessary to capture the images, and to make them on-line as promptly as possible.

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf