When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, it killed more than 10,000 people in a matter of hours. Dale Kunce, a senior geospatial engineer for the American Red Cross, was scrambling stateside to map the tragedy for first responders. The Philippine government had sent 40 pages of hastily scanned Excel tables. “It wasn’t even scanned by a machine scanner. So the pages would be turned slightly each time,” he says. The data, so crucial to planning recovery efforts, was useless in that form. Dozens of volunteers were tasked with retyping the information just for him to begin work.