Louisiana Relies on ArcGIS Hub Premium to Prepare for and Document Disasters

There was an unavoidable feeling of foreboding when Hurricane Ida, with powerful category 4 winds, arrived in Louisiana on an inauspicious date: August 29, 2021.

It was 16 years to the day since Hurricane Katrina made landfall, overpowering the state's levee system and submerging much of New Orleans. Much had changed in the intervening years to make Ida far less deadly, though, including heavy investments in upgrading flood protection systems. This time, there was also a new way of ensuring that the public and emergency responders would know what was happening as it was happening.

Rebuilt with Esri's ArcGIS technology by the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), Virtual Louisiana has become the central online hub for data and information related to disasters impacting the state. The hub site offers real-time updated weather forecasts, information about evacuation routes and available shelters, a way for residents to submit information and images when damage occurs to their homes, and more. Behind the scenes, it's how state, federal, and local leaders—including 64 separate parishes—can seamlessly stay informed, share information securely, and collaborate on actions during an emergency event.

It wasn't always that way though.

GOHSEP serves a state of 4.6 million people living in 64 separate parishes. Louisiana residents are vulnerable to a variety of emergencies including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe winters. In 2020, that list included four hurricanes and a pandemic.

For its spatial analytics and mapping needs amid emergencies, Louisiana's GOHSEP had relied on outside contractors and a limited third-party desktop system that would soon be retired and unsupported. There was no established operational geographic information system (GIS) workflow. Instead, when the agency needed maps, it would seek them out from the IT statewide systems program analyst who joined GOHSEP in 2016 to offer aid with GIS needs part-time. In 2016, a devastating fall flood led GOHSEP to pursue Esri's help through its Disaster Response Program (DRP). The event made it clear that the agency wasn't using its existing ArcGIS license to its full potential. GOHSEP realized that it needed its in-house system to rely less on paper-based systems and ad hoc contracts and be more easily connected to state and federal agencies and the 64 parishes to provide essential situational awareness. The state agency also needed to control access levels to secure information sharing, as well as more efficiently collect damage assessments. Ultimately, the state wanted a solution that the two people who made up the GIS team, neither of whom was dedicated to GOHSEP's GIS needs full-time, could manage.

ArcGIS Hub Premium provided the state both a public-facing site to engage communities during emergency events as well as secure access for more than 1,000 local and federal first responders to share data and collaborate during incidents. In addition, it allowed easier sharing with existing ArcGIS clients, including federal agencies.

In addition to fostering collaboration among multiple local and federal agencies during incidents, Virtual Louisiana has become a destination for sharing information with the public, including extreme weather forecasts and evacuation orders. The agency has embraced automating processes as it anticipates needs. Since the transition to ArcGIS Hub Premium, the GOHSEP GIS team has found more agencies willing to share their data and collaborate to support enhanced decision-making. In the state's unified command group meetings with the governor, the team has seen a move away from static presentations to a reliance on information presented with live data in dashboards and web apps, developed in Hub Premium.

Using this powerful technology, the state's disaster preparedness teams have also discovered that they could now review a couple hundred damage assessments collected through Survey123 in just an hour, significantly shortening the time spent and making the information available to FEMA more quickly. GOHSEP has become a model for its use of GIS technology to share critical information in real time among those that need it, as well as speed up damage assessments essential to disaster declarations and subsequent relief funding. GOHSEP has also fielded requests from other metropolitan agencies wanting to replicate what Louisiana has done in managing its disasters.

"When we started having that many professionals who are really good at what they do, wanting to come to us to ask, 'What's the secret sauce?,' we thought, maybe we're on to something good here," said Dixon.

In the waning days of 2022, there would be no rest for Louisiana's emergency workers as they responded to tornadoes, flash floods, and winter weather. Their technology, though, would help improve chances of survival and swift recoveries for those in danger.