Codex employees, many displaced from their homes, built 17 emergency flood applications in 30 days that enabled critical rescue operations.<\/p>\r\n
Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Luiz Marchiori stepped outside his apartment building in Porto Alegre one Sunday morning in May 2024, squinting into the bright sunshine. There was no sign of what was to come\u2014of the fierce floods that would soon strike his Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.<\/p>\r\n \u201cI walked through the center of the city, and it was calm. But the water was rising,\u201d said Marchiori, a meteorologist-turned-founder and CEO of Codex\u2014a company specializing in the most advanced geographic information system (GIS) technology often used to prepare for and respond to this type of natural disaster.<\/p>\r\n Two hundred miles north in the highlands, a year\u2019s worth of rain had fallen in just three days. Water was racing through every river and stream toward Marchiori\u2019s city\u2014the state capital and regional home to 2.3 million people\u2014carrying with it a force that would challenge everything he thought he knew about extreme weather.<\/p>\r\n Marchiori\u2019s mind was racing as he thought of how to help and the data that would be needed. He knew GIS dashboards could give responders real-time awareness of the locations and conditions of people and resources. He considered how GIS maps could become lifelines for residents who would need to find shelter and food. He anticipated that people and goods would need to be routed around broken roads and bridges. He expected calls from Codex\u2019s government customers to help them see clearly amidst the chaos.<\/p>\r\n What he didn\u2019t know was how many of his small team of technologists would be displaced. When they lost everything, his office and their GIS skills would sustain and distract them from the anguish, while giving them purpose in their darkest hour. They would work day and night, building real-time mapping apps to support rescue and response.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Statistically, such an event was supposed to occur once every 10,000 years. Even Marchiori, with his meteorological background, had never studied situations this extreme.<\/p>\r\n \u201cThere was never a scenario that could predict what happened,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone who works with these scenarios needs to rethink everything.\u201d<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[756452,756342,756422]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" The geography of Rio Grande do Sul concentrated the power of the extreme rainfall. All the water from the highlands funneled toward the same place\u2014the Porto Alegre region. Then, in a cruel twist of meteorology, south winds pushed brewing storm clouds against the highlands, bringing more rain as atmospheric pressure from the ongoing heatwave blocked the clouds\u2019 natural path to the ocean. A floodwater volume of 1.5 billion cubic meters descended on the city, causing water levels to rise at unprecedented speed and displacing 600,000 people.<\/p>\r\n Within 48 hours, rushing waters overwhelmed the city\u2019s Dutch-inspired pumping system\u2014designed to manage water in a region that sits below sea level. The pumps that normally push excess water into the ocean were knocked offline by inundated electrical systems. Water levels in downtown Porto Alegre reached nearly seven feet. The airport, 70 percent under water, would remain closed for six months.<\/p>\r\n For Marchiori and Codex\u2019s 70-person staff, the disaster was deeply personal. Four employees lost everything. Twelve had to evacuate their homes. Those who could make it to company headquarters brought mattresses and stayed for the duration of the event. The office never lost power or internet connection, so it became both an impromptu shelter for displaced staff and an emergency operation center to deal with the flooding event.<\/p>\r\n \u201cWhen this kind of disaster happens in Brazil, it usually affects people with lower income, more vulnerable people,\u201d Marchiori said. \u201cBut in this case, it happened to everyone. People with mansions, people with shacks\u2014everyone was affected. It was a really democratic disaster.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n As the waters rose, traditional systems collapsed. The state\u2019s entire data infrastructure, located in low-lying areas, completely flooded. Government officials found themselves unable to access maps, databases, or even basic information about water levels. Bank systems went down for three days. People couldn\u2019t buy necessities because electronic payment systems had failed.<\/p>\r\n Codex received immediate aid from its business partner, Esri, through Esri\u2019s disaster response program<\/a>. Codex offered its services to Brazilian state and local governments free of charge. \u201cWe put ourselves in a position to help,\u201d Marchiori said. \u201cWe just said, let us do what we can.\u201d<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[756552,756562,756482,756442,756412,756392]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" Government officials set up emergency headquarters on higher ground and gave Codex a workspace. The team worked around the clock, often delivering applications within 24 hours of receiving requests.<\/p>\r\n \u201cThey would tell us what they needed for tomorrow, and we would work overnight to deliver it the next day,\u201d Marchiori said. \u201cThey needed it for planning, for rescuing people, for knowing where they had to go.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n The Codex team ended up creating a suite of decision-support tools that could convey the full scope of the disaster. In 30 days, solution engineers made 17 different applications, each addressing critical needs that emergency planners in the city, the region, and in the country had never anticipated.<\/p>\r\n The first application mapped road blockages in real time. Civil defense teams in the field sent coordinates via mobile phones, and within hours, Codex updated maps showing which routes remained passable for rescue operations. Red dots scattered across digital maps became the difference between dead ends and quick routes for emergency responders.<\/p>\r\n Another application identified vulnerable populations\u2014people with mobility impairments, including residents who are blind and elderly people who needed assistance to evacuate. \u201cThey needed to know where the people who needed help were located to get them out of their homes,\u201d Marchiori said.<\/p>\r\n Drawing on Marchiori\u2019s meteorological expertise, Codex developed a flood forecasting tool that showed what would happen as water levels continued to rise. The application allowed officials to model different scenarios\u2014if water rose another half meter, which schools would be affected? Which buildings designated as shelters would be flooded?<\/p>\r\n \u201cWe could see that the water was still rising, and it was still raining in the highlands,\u201d Marchiori said. \u201cNo one knew what the next morning would bring.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \t
The Perfect Storm<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
When Infrastructure Fails, Innovation Rises<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
17 Applications in 30 Days<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
Innovation Under Pressure<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n