Internet usage in general, goes up during disasters. A large number of internet searches quickly follow catastrophes and major world events. Google, for example, reported that searches for news-related sites increased 60 times over normal levels on September 11. The London bombings in July 2005 showed a similar search peak according to the Google Zeitgeist for 2005.
In Google Trends there appears to be similar peaks in maps searches during these crises as well. It is probably safe to infer that there was dramatically increased map usage as well when the catastrophe was location based.
Search: London Map, Paris Map
Search: Madrid Map
The peaks are very short lived, lasting one or the most two days:
Google Trend Search: London Map 2005
Google Trend Search: Madrid Map 2004
