NiRec: Need Recommender for Hurricane Disaster Relief

It is of paramount importance to know the situations of people who undergone disaster events and be aware of their updates, yet it is not an easy job to accomplish in the chaos of a disaster. To facilitate advanced disaster relief organization and efficient supplement distribution, we develop NiRec, a social media based need prediction prototype that predicts needs for victims across the affected area. NiRec first extracts problems and concerns posted by victims of disaster-hurricane, in our case study; then displays the statistics to offer an overview for awareness and further analysis; and last, predicts the needs such as "diaper", "boat", "canoe" and "shelter" etc. for disaster relief planning.