In the Aftermath of Disaster

Spring weather in Iowa packs a potent punch. This year's unusually severe weather, including the tornado that struck Parkersburg and New Hartford and flooding in Ames illustrate the potential of geospatial data and tools to help save lives, limit damage, and reduce the costs of dealing with emergencies. Maps, data sets, tools, procedures and policies as well as the personnel to interact with them have played a crucial role in dealing with this spring's weather events.

Damage assessment is required after any disaster. Thanks in part to geospatial technologies, in these cases it was done more quickly and more accurately resulting in faster filing for federal assistance and more accurate dollar figures. In Butler County, the County Assessor worked with the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division (HSEMD) to make sure they had access to their digital assessment data where it was combined with post-tornado images from Civil Air Patrol (CAP) to speed and streamline damage assessments in Parkersburg and New Hartford. Black Hawk County sent their assessment data as well, and both sets of information were used to assist Mid-American Energy in determining which customers needed their billing suspended during this tragedy.

The City of Ames and Story County have both utilized geospatial technologies to support decisions made during recent flooding events. In the City of Ames, Geographic Information System (GIS) Coordinator Ben McConville was stationed in their Emergency Operations Center (EOC) throughout the flooding providing mapping related support to aid decision making and streamline flood response activities. As the flooding status changed for the area, up-to-date road closure maps were generated and that information was sent to City departments and others to make them aware of the changing circumstances as quickly as possible. GIS was also utilized to quickly generate contact lists for properties threatened by the floodwaters, rather than looking up potentially affected properties in a phone book and contacting property owners in a traditional manner. This allowed business and property owners to respond much faster to the flooding and resulting consequences.

During the same recent flooding event, Lori Morrissey, Story County Emergency Management Coordinator, worked hand in hand with County staff in using GIS to assess the impact of flooding. Utilizing assessment data of ownership and value, maps were quickly generated showing properties that were destroyed and those with major damage. These maps were a crucial tool during the verification tour with staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the County worked to acquire Federal assistance for those impacted.

Jon Paoli, GIS Coordinator for HSEMD was in the State EOC during and after these events. He states the some of the value of GIS in this way, "It allowed us to get close to real damage assessment numbers to the Federal Government so we could get declared more quickly... more accurate data leads to more accurate funding."

In the weeks and months to come, hopefully the severe weather will be minimal. But if it does strike in areas of Iowa that have geospatial tools, rest assured that those tools will be used to react quickly, assist with decision making, and provide accurate assessment data to the authorities.

Article on using GIS in Davenport for flood issues

Article in the Quad City Times "Rain looms as river recedes" that discusses recent rising river issues with the Mississippi River and the response. This clip is towards the bottom of the article and talks about how GIS is being used by the city to improve response and planning.

Davenport Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer said flood fighters are now waiting for the river to fall and then cleanup will begin.

If rain is minimal, she said, then Modern Woodman Park and Rhythm City Casino could be open Monday. Heavy rains are likely to cause a couple of days delay.

The earthen levee built on River Drive between Iowa and Perry streets will remain until the river dips below 17 feet, Bruemmer said.

She said that fighting the flood has gone smoothly for city crews because of both the city’s flood plan and the Geographic Information System the city used to plot the course of the river as it rose.

“In 1993, we had an old paper map with red lines that we drew on it,” she said. In 2001, she added, they used a topographical map with red and green lines.

Now, the city has a computerized 3-D program that shows where flood water will be when the river rises to a certain level.

Kevin Jones, GIS coordinator for the city, uses the program to make real time decisions on where levees and pumps and sandbags need to be as the river is rising.

“It gives us an idea of how big the sandbag or earthen levees need to be,” Jones said.

According to the National Weather Service statistics, a crest of 19.24 feet puts the flood of 2008 in eighth place among the top 10 crests of the Mississippi River at the Quad-Cities.