Abstract: In the aftermath of natural disasters, members of the affected communities are often the de facto first responders. Local volunteers can respond quickly, are strongly motivated, and have the necessary ground knowledge.
However, their search and rescue efforts may be misdirected in the absence of information about the location and status of victims. We propose LOST, a system that gathers data from smartphones in affected areas, even when the regular communication infrastructure fails, and aggregates it in a web interface for visualization. For each individual, LOST-Map shows location traces and activity indicators. The information can be explored by selecting time-frames and/or applying filters over activity indicators. The paper briefly describes the design of LOST, introduces the visualization tool LOST-Map, and reports on a study (n=10) that suggests that it can be effectively used by untrained volunteers.