Hurricanes & iPhones

By Craig Agranoff  August 18th, 2008

Although it appears the South Eastern Coast of Florida (where I live) will be spared from Hurricane Fay, it still alarmed us to go into prepardness mode.  During our inital preparations, my wife asked me to double check if we had certain supplies.  While looking around for many of the items, it dawned on my that many of the gadgets I was looking for, are already found on my iPhone.

Turning on any channel as a storm approaches, you will notice that they keep displaying a checklist of items your family should have during a hurricane.  On this checklist are the obvious items such as Water, Gas, Propane and Canned Food.  But also on this checklist are other items such as flashlights, and radios to tune into weather stations.  It was at this precise moment I realized how handy my iPhone could be throughout a hurricane.

During my last round of downloading free apps from the iTunes store, I downloaded the Flashlight App by John Haney.  Although there are several flashlight type apps, I chose this specific app since it was the first one.  Weatherbug, was another app I downloaded during this last download round as well.  Weatherbug has always been a program I frowned upon after uploading it onto my computer and getting some viruses.  Being the risk taker I am, I figured I would try it on the iPhone since I couldn’t see Apple letting anything harmful get through.

In the middle of the night when I awoke, I was without power briefly, and turned my iphone on to check emails. Then I had an epiphany…and realized, I could use my flashlight application to make sure I didn’t step on my wife’s dog.  So I flipped through my screens and found my Flashlight App, and used it to guide me through the otherwise dark house.  When I made it to the kitchen, I hit the WeatherBug icon and low and behold I had radar for my local area showing me the approaching feeder bands, as well as weather alerts for my local area.  This was truly awesome.  I always knew my iPhone was full of features, but never realized how many uses it has.

It would be beneficial for more companies to invest their time into making apps that could be used during emergencies.  Certain apps are worth paying for, and ones that could provide my family and I safety, are most likely the ones I would look to purchase.  My next round of downloads will focus on purchasing or downloading for free, apps that can help during times of need.

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    Uh, "Flashlight" was not the first flashlight app -- though catchy name, huh? Actually, there were at least two other such free apps at the opening of the App Store: (1) "Light," another oh-so-clever name, also a plain-old, simple app like Flashlight, which was later kicked off the App Store for violating the developer rules, and (2) "myLite," which was in the top-ten long before Flashlight was, actually for almost two weeks, before Flashlight simply copied a couple of its features. But myLite is the one I *much* prefer, because it has many more features than Flashlight -- nine total "effects." And there are some really cool reviews of how people have used myLite, including in emergency situations .

    You have the wrong app, dude!
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    What I meant by flashlight appearing first was that it showed up first on the search I did. You are absolutely right that it wasn't the first app of it's type launched. I will check out the one you suggested.
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