The Federal Emergency Management Agency combined a number of inputs to create this dashboard tallying the impacts of the tornadoes that hit on March 3, 2019.
This year, on March 2nd, dozens of tornadoes ripped across southeastern US states. Two twisters reached nearly the same track in Lee County an hour apart, leaving Alabama authorities racing to assess the damage and search for survivors.
Modeling Damage
New Light Technologies offers expertise in building risk-based hazard models for mission-critical planning and response operations during major natural disasters. NLT's unique expertise in developing automated solutions for integrating geospatial, scientific, and sensor data into models for near-real-time hazard risk prediction, analysis, visualization, and information dissemination enables customers to receive actionable information on potential impacts quickly.
"The preliminary model takes land use data within the tornado track to estimate the level of damage to individual structures," said an NLT geophysical data scientist. "As soon as we have wind speeds, we can run the model to calculate the estimated level of damage. From there, we can create a spreadsheet, stand up a web application, and create a feature service that others can consume, all within a few hours."
Speedy assessment enhances situational awareness for teams conducting on-the-ground damage analysis, as well as crews working to remove debris, reopen roadways, and restore electrical and communications networks. The preliminary damage review also helps support damage-declaration decisions for impacted communities.
This tabbed Story Map, developed by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, shows tornado paths and tallies the people and businesses impacted.
Combining Many Inputs
Many people and agencies rally to assist local first responders during each disaster. In the case of the Alabama tornadoes, the American Red Cross rapidly deployed volunteers to conduct door-to-door damage assessments with a survey-based field application, and the Geospatial Intelligence Center (GIC) of the National Insurance Crime Bureau collected aerial imagery through a partnership with Vexcel Imaging.
With today's modern geospatial infrastructure, data from multiple organizations can be securely shared as web services — aerial imagery, field-collected data, base maps, and more. Together, these data can be combined in purpose-built applications that visually communicate different place-based aspects of the operation.
"The model provides an estimated overall scoping of the incident size, shape, and extent to support a variety of crisis decisions," FEMA's Geographic Information Officer (GIO) said. "The faster and more accurate we are, the better the evidence-based decisions. We're always fighting time, and time is life."
NLT is a 15-year Esri Business Partner with a diverse background working with Esri across federal, state, and local governments, bringing Esri technologies to dynamic customer environments and integrating solutions from multiple data and infrastructure systems.
Parts of this blog were originally published on April 23, 2019 on Esri's blog by Esri's Director of Public Safety Industry Solutions.
About New Light Technologies
New Light Technologies (NLT) is a Washington, DC-based firm with 25+ years of experience delivering:
- Geospatial systems and enterprise GIS
- Cloud-native data platforms
- AI/ML and advanced analytics
- DevSecOps and cybersecurity solutions
NLT supports federal, state, and international organizations in operationalizing data for mission impact.