XKCD - disaster movie

Source - link

See, it's funny because scientists aren't the big, buff heroes often portrayed in disaster movies as being the people on the front lines leaping into the burning building, driving their trucks at the edge of the tornadoes, cruising around the island saving people from raptors, leaping lava rivers to save their damsel in distress.

Instead, scientists would be more likely to be looking to update their data about the world as the disaster happens. In fact, as explainxkcd explains (natch)...

The situation described (scrambling to update geographical datasets in the advent of natural disaster) is actually a common occurrence these days. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team's Disaster Response unit does almost exactly this: When there is a natural disaster in a location that lacks high quality GIS data (common in much of the developing world), a team of volunteers across the world mobilises to update and improve OpenStreetMap. They use the latest available satellite imagery, usually donated free for the purpose. Disaster response teams then use the GIS data in OpenStreetMap to create maps and plan their response.