On Saturday, 31 January 2026, a single cloud changed Maipú in less than an hour. It unleashed 17 millimetres of rainfall in just forty-five minutes, flooding streets and destroying homes.
Images of the scene quickly spread across social media. Many claimed they were fake. But they were not. They captured an extreme weather event that devastated more than a thousand families.
In moments like this, local governments must act fast to reach those in need. In Maipú, real-time data became a vital part of that effort.
The first hours
The first hours after a disaster often shape everything that follows. In the early hours of Sunday morning, municipal teams that were deployed on the ground confirmed that hundreds of families had lost everything. By 3:00 AM, a Disaster Risk Management Committee (COGRID) had been convened to co-ordinate the initial response.
As daylight came, efforts moved into organised action. Teams were deployed across the territory to assess damage, support families, manage clean-up efforts and deliver aid.
In a fast-changing situation, local officials needed more than goodwill and hard work. They needed reliable information on where damage was worst, what families needed most, and how resources could be directed without delay.
Turning technology into action
Maipú responded by putting technology and better use of data at the heart of its emergency response.
This was not built from scratch. Since the early 2000s, the city has developed a geographic information system known as SITMA (Maipú’s Territorial Information System).
The platform brings together different layers of local information and allows incidents to be recorded with precise geolocation through mobile devices. Alongside this, the municipality had already launched MAI in 2022, a virtual assistant available through WhatsApp that helps residents access information and municipal services.
Following the storm, these two tools were combined into a single response mechanism. While teams on the ground began registering cases in real time, residents reported their own situations through MAI. Through this channel, the municipality received more than 2 000 citizen reports, and included location data alongside status updates and photos or videos.
The link between municipal fieldwork and direct citizen input gave Maipú something precious: georeferenced data that allowed needs to be mapped across the entire territory. This made it easier to identify priorities, guide recovery work and communicate clearly with national authorities and other public and private actors involved in the response.
Emergency COGRID meeting in Maipú
Scaling up the response
As the days passed, information continued to be updated daily, thanks to citizen reports and fieldwork. Municipal social teams, along with support from other local governments, were deployed throughout the week to administer the FIBE form (Basic Emergency Form).
This step was crucial, as the form is required to access both municipal and national support. In less than seven days, more than 1 400 of these forms were successfully completed. This enabled more than 800 families to receive the emergency grant directly in their bank account within just 10 days, while the remaining households received the support in the following weeks.
A local lesson with wider relevance
There is a broader lesson here for cities facing rising climate risks. Discussions about evidence-based policy and data-driven government can sometimes feel distant from the day-to-day pressures of local public administration. They are often seen as long-term ambitions rather than practical tools for frontline action.
Maipú’s experience proves otherwise.
When public technology is already in place, and when teams know how to use it, data can make the state more responsive at exactly the moment people need it most. SITMA, MAI and existing payment systems did not replace public workers. They helped them work faster, with a clearer picture of what was happening across the city.
This matters because extreme weather events are no longer rare. Local governments are increasingly on the front line of floods, fires and heatwaves, often with limited time and resources. In that context, recovery depends not only on emergency plans, but on the ability to gather, verify and use information quickly.
Building readiness before the next crisis
The Maipú case is not simply a story about digital tools. It is a story about preparedness. Our city was able to respond quickly because it had already invested in systems, local capacity and channels for citizen contact before the storm hit. That is an important lesson for other cities. Technology is most useful in a crisis when it is already part of everyday public management.
Of course, no platform can replace the commitment of the people who respond on the ground. It is the work of municipal teams, social workers and local partners that makes recovery possible. But their efforts can go further when backed by timely information and systems that help turn reports into a rapid response.
For Maipú, data helped turn a chaotic emergency into a more ordered recovery. For other cities, the message is clear: if local governments want to respond better to growing climate shocks, they need to build the tools and technology before the next storm arrives.
This is a translation of the original opinion piece, published in Spanish by El País.
Tomás Vodanovic Escudero was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1990. He holds a degree in sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and has specialized in Public Policies at Georgetown University.
At the age of 20, Tomás founded the NGO “Formando Chile,” dedicated to promoting inclusive growth in underprivileged neighborhoods through education. He also served as a teacher of History, Geography, and Citizenship Education in “Enseña Chile,” a member of Teach for All. Since 2018, Tomás has been actively involved in the community of Maipú. Initially, he served as a staff member for a congressman and, in 2021, was elected as Maipú’s Mayor with an overwhelming 47% of the votes, making him the most voted mayor in those elections. In 2024 he was reelected with a 70% of the votes, making him the most voted mayor in Chilean history. Tomás is dedicated to revitalizing public spaces, enhancing user experience in Maipú’s services and generating an effective work environment.