The Oso mudslide that killed 43 people in Washington in 2014 is an example of people being uninformed about the natural hazards near their homes, Bendick explained.

"Why the hell were there houses at the base of that slope," Bendick said. "People who bought those houses obviously didn’t have access to all the information, even though the geologic maps said ‘landslide, landslide, landslide.’ This happens over and over again and there’s no good reason for it.”

Homeowners living at the base of Mount Jumbo could perhaps have protected themselves, too, if the information had been available in 2014.

A simple scientific analysis of the area performed by MacPherson-Krutsky showed "that little bowl on the south side of Mount Jumbo is at pretty high risk for sliding," Bendick said. "But, the people who live at the base of that gully, they didn’t know that. And it matters that you don’t know that.”

Bendick said the website is much like a weather app.

“You can tell people it’s going to rain, but you can’t force them to take an umbrella with them,” she said.

The city of Missoula and Missoula County both contributed data and content to the product.