A time lapse of Foursquare activity in NYC during Sandy, plus a simple way to help every time you check in

Our visualization of the before and after of the storm last week got a lot of attention, so we decided to dig a bit deeper and show how check-in patterns change during an event of Hurricane Sandy’s magnitude. Here’s a time lapse of lower Manhattan, beginning with the Saturday before the storm and ending early this morning, with much of power downtown having been restored. Besides the general ebb and flow of activity between day and night throughout the week, you’ll see the number of check-ins drastically decrease below 34th Street from Tuesday to Friday, when almost all of lower Manhattan was without power.

Many people and businesses are struggling to get back on their feet after the destruction caused by Sandy. We’ve teamed up with Snoball to help people from anywhere in the world support local communities affected by Hurricane Sandy, every time they check in. Here’s how it works:

1. Connect the Snoball app to your Foursquare account.
2. Set it up so that, every time you check in to a type of place (for instance, to a restaurant), it will donate a certain amount (like one dollar) to the charity of your choice (like the American Red Cross).
3. That way, every time you do certain activities, you’re also giving to those in need and affected by the storm.

In addition to volunteering and donating food and material goods, we hope this is a simple way for you to contribute to hurricane relief efforts.