{"id":223182,"date":"2019-04-23T07:36:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T14:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=223182"},"modified":"2022-07-07T12:30:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T19:30:35","slug":"authorities-map-and-model-damage-from-deadly-alabama-tornadoes","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/authorities-map-and-model-damage-from-deadly-alabama-tornadoes","title":{"rendered":"Authorities Map and Model Damage from Deadly Alabama Tornadoes"},"author":941,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[335292,261,201112,221],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478642],"esri_blog_department":[478242],"class_list":["post-223182","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-safety","tag-disaster-assessment","tag-fema","tag-modeling","tag-tornado","esri-blog-category-disaster-response","esri_blog_department-public-safety"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"Federal agencies aided the response to devastating tornadoes in Lee County, Alabama, using maps and models to prioritize actions.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Key Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>First responders use maps and apps for damage assessment to prioritize response and find victims.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The National Weather Service uses GIS to collect, map and classify the extent and track of each tornado\u2019s path.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Automated preliminary response estimates speed assessment and rescue work.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<em>This is the first of a two-part story about damage assessment for the devastating tornadoes in Lee County, Alabama. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/lee-county-maps-tornado-victim-needs\">second installment<\/a> focuses on the local response to the needs of those impacted.<\/em>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDozens of tornadoes ripped through southeastern US states this year on March 2. Two twisters touched down an hour apart along nearly the same path in Lee County, Alabama leaving authorities racing to assess damages and search for survivors.\r\n\r\nFour days before the deadly storm, forecasters predicted it due to a strong weather pattern known as a shortwave trough. The National Weather Service\u2019s Storm Prediction Center issued a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Particularly_Dangerous_Situation\">Particularly Dangerous Situation<\/a>\u00a0tornado watch for much of Alabama, northwest Georgia, southeast Mississippi, and southern middle Tennessee. The forecast marked a greater than 95% probability of at least two tornadoes and at least one of those being a strong tornado.\r\n\r\nIn Lee County, the first tornado struck with more than 170 mile-per-hour winds (rated an EF4 on the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Enhanced_Fujita_scale\">Enhanced Fujita Scale<\/a>). Leaving a trail of destruction nearly a mile wide and 24 miles long, the tornado tore down trees, tossed cars, and leveled homes to piles of debris. Twenty-three people lost their lives.\r\n\r\nWhen any disaster strikes, authorities must act quickly to assess damage. In the case of tornadoes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s National Weather Service is one of the first on the scene with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/ama\/damagesurveys\">damage survey team<\/a>. The team gathers data to map storm start and end points, path length and width, and wind magnitudes.\r\n\r\n\u201cI was initially called by the Alabama Emergency Management Agency to support efforts there,\u201d said Jared Bostic, deputy Geographic Information Officer with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. \u201cI took the tornado swaths and then mapped an impact summary, using a geographic information system (GIS) to calculate the population and number of households that could be affected within those swaths, including the number of businesses.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis initial mapping gives first responders crucial information about potential scope and scale of the event and helps the search and rescue effort."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":223712,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Modeling Damage <\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn the wake of a disaster, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) need specific details of damage before they can determine the level of federal recovery assistance. Typically, it is up to local authorities to provide information. To reduce that burden, FEMA started working on a partially automated imagery-derived model to conduct preliminary house-by-house damage estimates.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe impetus for this solution goes back to the EF5 tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, in May of 2011,\u201d said Christopher Vaughan, Geospatial Information Officer at FEMA. \u201cWhen 500 federal employees showed up and began asking for data it was a struggle for the city\u2019s GIS person to come up with what got hit and how bad it got hit.\u201d\r\n\r\nIt took a week to fly updated aerial imagery and conduct house-by-house damage assessments.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have significantly improved the time it takes to gain an awareness and understanding of tornado damage,\u201d said Vaughan. \u201cWe have gone from five to six days down to less than 24 hours.\u201d\r\n\r\nVaughan and his team attribute the faster assessment time to a national building footprint and parcel data set, which allow for quicker calculations of damage to homes and structures. FEMA has been working with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and its contractor CoreLogic to develop the national parcel base, building on <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bing.com\/maps\/2018-06\/microsoft-releases-125-million-building-footprints-in-the-us-as-open-data\">Microsoft\u2019s release of national building outlines<\/a>. This data combines with Enhanced Fujita wind speed ratings that help to assess the level of damage caused to different structures based on the wind speed.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe preliminary model takes land use data within the tornado track to estimate the level of damage to individual structures,\u201d said Madeline Jones, geophysical data scientist at New Light Technologies, a FEMA contractor. \u201cAs 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/fema.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/webappviewer\/index.html?id=f67e6a30e6ec4e4fabedd743aa1fefe6&amp;%20Building%20Exposure%20for%20AL%20=&amp;%20GA%20Tornadoes\">web application<\/a>, and create a feature service that others can consume, all within a few hours.\u201d\r\n\r\nSpeedy 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 the impacted communities.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe model provides an estimated overall scoping of the incident size, shape, and extent to support a variety of crisis decisions,\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cThe faster and more accurate we are, the better the evidence-based decisions. We\u2019re always fighting time, and time is life.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":223312,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"http:\/\/fema.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/webappviewer\/index.html?id=f67e6a30e6ec4e4fabedd743aa1fefe6&%20Building%20Exposure%20for%20AL%20=&%20GA%20Tornadoes"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Combining Many Inputs<\/strong>\r\n\r\nDuring every disaster, many people and agencies rally to assist local first responders. In the case of the Alabama tornadoes, the American Red Cross quickly deployed volunteers with a survey-based field application to conduct door-to-door damage assessments. The National Insurance Crime Bureau\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/geointel.org\/\">Geospatial Intelligence Center<\/a>\u00a0(GIC) collected aerial imagery, through a partnership with Vexcel Imaging and Esri, and made the imagery available to first responders as well as insurance company members.\r\n\r\nWith today\u2019s modern geospatial infrastructure, data from multiple organizations can be securely shared as web services. This includes web services for aerial imagery, field-collected data, basemaps, and more. Together, these data can be combined in purpose-built applications that visually communicate different place-based aspects of the operation.\r\n\r\n\u201cWith the imagery service coming from the GIC, I created a change detection slider for pre- and post-disaster imagery,\u201d Bostic said. \u201cYou can just move that slider back and forth to see a home before and after the tornado.\u201d\r\n\r\nBostic and his team use <a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/en\/\">Story Maps<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/operations-dashboard\/overview\">Operations Dashboards for ArcGIS<\/a> to communicate information at a glance to decision makers and first responders in the field. These modern apps help fill in data gaps for first responders and operators working to save lives and property during a disaster.\r\n\r\nBostic created a damage assessment dashboard to tally the Red Cross damage appraisals. \u201cOnce an assessment is done and submitted in the field,\" he explains, \"it updates the dashboard with the date and time of the most recent submission, the type of home it is, and the extent of structural damage. A ticker tallies the number of assessments to date.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[223272,223262,223252]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Recurring Incidents<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAlabamians know to take cover from tornadoes. It is one of the few places in the world to experience two tornado seasons, adding November and December along with severe spring weather.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere were 300 tornado touchdown points in the spring of 2011, and it caused chaos,\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cAlabama, Georgia, and Mississippi were all impacted. Tuscaloosa and Birmingham got hit the hardest. If we were to get hit today with that kind of massive event, we have the technology to quickly deliver information and make sure that we're all communicating and collaborating.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe quick and impossible-to-predict path of tornadoes make it one of the more unsettling disasters.\r\n\r\n\u201cWith hurricanes, you have a week to plan and get people out of harm\u2019s way,\u201d Bostic said. \u201cWe knew we were going to have some bad weather, but you just don't know when and where it\u2019s going to drop out of the sky.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nEsri\u2019s Disaster Response Program provides software, data coordination, technical support, and other GIS assistance.\u00a0Learn more about the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/services\/disaster-response\">Disaster Response Program<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:disaster_help@esri.com\">contact us<\/a>\u00a0in times of emergency."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<strong>Increasing the Accuracy of Automation<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides support for all types of disaster. It maintains an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/data-visualization-disaster-declarations-states-and-counties\">online data visualization tool<\/a>\u00a0that allows people to review events in each county and state across the US over time. Records date back to 1953, when federal assistance started.\r\n\r\nFEMA recently released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/preliminary-damage-assessment-reports\">preliminary damage assessment records<\/a>\u00a0from the past nine years. The dataset includes close to a million records covering all big events, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (one of the costliest with $70 billion in damage), the 2013 Moore tornado (most severe winds at 210 mph), the 2011 Joplin tornado (the deadliest since 1947), and more.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe've made the data publicly available to help with machine learning training,\u201d said Christopher Vaughan, Geospatial Information Officer at FEMA. \u201cResearchers can go back and look at old imagery and use it as training data for algorithms to automate disaster assessments.\u201d\r\n\r\nFEMA encourages academic use of this data. The goal is to speed the time from when a disaster hits to when it is assessed and communicated to first responders.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><iframe style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/go.esri.com\/l\/82202\/2020-03-18\/mzcn19\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/h3>"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Authorities Map Damage Assessment of Deadly Alabama Tornadoes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Federal agencies aided the damage assessment for devastating tornadoes in Lee County, Alabama, using maps and models to assist recovery efforts.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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