Tornado Response in the Midwest

Tornado Response in the Midwest

Even though GIS and cleanup efforts are ongoing... And the fact that I will probably follow this newsletter with another this fall... I wanted to write something now... Mainly due to it being spring storm season, and people need to be ready across the Midwest...

"In a typical year around?1300 tornadoes?will strike the United States. The peak of the tornado season is April through June with more tornadoes striking the central United States than any other place in the world. This area of the country has been nicknamed "tornado alley."" (noaa)

I recently responded and am still working with a customer on a DRP request. DRP stands for (Disaster Response Program ) The following is how it went, and a few lessons learned...


First some background context...

I am originally from the NE Oklahoma and SW Missouri area. So, am no stranger to tornados. I have had to take cover more times than I can count and it's just a fact of life around these parts of the Midwest...

I was also in GIS at the City of Carthage, during the Joplin MO EF5 tornado in 2011 and those memories will never fade in my mind...

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May 22, 2011, Joplin MO EF5

That tornado left a 21.63 Mile path of destruction 1,600 yards wide at the widest point taking the life of 158 people and injuring more than 1,150 others, with winds peaking around 250mph...


Now on to March, 31st 2023...

At 2:18 PM, a tornado was reported in Pulaski County, Arkansas this High-End EF3 Tornado with maximum wind speeds of 165MPH set down in Little Rock Arkansas it then proceeded Northeast into North Little Rock then Sherwood and Jacksonville.

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NWS Little Rock

It just so happened that John Borisenko (account manager with Esri) and I were leaving Little Rock around noon that day. This was after spending the day before meeting with PAgis (Pulaski Area GIS) and the city of Conway Arkansas that morning. We then started to head back home to St Louis, we were able to stay ahead of the storm, and John and I made it back to St Louis safely. During the trip, when we heard about the tornado we immediately reached out to Alex Harper the manager of PAgis... First, to ensure they were all ok, then to ask if they would like us to enact the DRP... When we got back to St Louis I returned the rental car, got to my apartment, plugged in my computer, and contacted Alex... It just so happened that I was able to assist... Then we got to work... Late into the night Alex and I launched solutions into the PAgis ArcGIS online org.

The following days were quite a blur...

PAgis, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, and Jacksonville were not quite prepared from a GIS perspective for this event... However, not many places in the Midwest are... Either way in their time of need, like most places in a tornado they came together and used what they had... They had knowledge and resources, and collaboration in GIS that was strong... This made our response a huge success...

Within one week we had stood up 20+ ArcGIS applications across the 3 different towns in Pulaski County... We had visual ground inspections and aerial post-event imagery inspections. Assessing over 5,100 damaged structures left behind by this tornado...

PAGIS was instrumental in coordinating these efforts across the region...

With the help of all the jurisdictions, we were able to achieve a lot in a short amount of time...


Here is a list of some of the applications...

PAGIS

  • PAGIS Damage Assessment Hub – ( Central Site with information about applications and efforts)
  • Area Wide Damage Map – (Map showing damage report locations from all member agencies)
  • Area Wide Damage Photo Viewer App – (Custom App showing photos and their locations from damage reports)

Little Rock

  • PAGIS Little Rock Hub – ( Central Site with information about applications)
  • Little Rock Damage Assessment Survey?– (Custom Config of Windshield Damage Template Form)
  • Little Rock Damage Assessment Dashboard?– (Custom Experience Mobile Responsive Dashboard)
  • Little Rock Road Closure submit App – (Esri Road Closure Solution Deployed Application)
  • Little Rock Road Closures and Traffic Signal Outages Viewer App?– (Used to view road closures & Traffic signal outages)
  • Little Rock Before and After Tornado Application – ( Custom web app with an image slider)
  • Little Rock Traffic Signal Outage Editor App – (Custom app to keep track of and update signal outages)
  • Little Rock Damage Report Editor App—( Custom app to make corrections to Damage Reports collected in the field)

North Little Rock

  • PAGIS North Little Rock Hub – ( Central Site with information about applications)
  • North Little Rock Damage Assessment Survey?– (Custom Config of Windshield Damage Template Form)
  • North Little Rock Damage Assessment Dashboard?– (Custom Experience Mobile Responsive Dashboard)
  • North Little Rock Before and After Tornado Application – ( Custom web app with an image slider and draw tool)
  • Aerial-Imagery Damage Assessment Dashboard – ( Custom dashboard using data collected from NLR geocoded and presented in dashboard format)

Sherwood

  • PAGIS Sherwood Hub – ( Central Site with information about applications)
  • Sherwood Damage Assessment Survey?– (Custom Config of Windshield Damage Template Form)?
  • Sherwood Damage Assessment Dashboard?– (Custom Experience Mobile Responsive Dashboard)

Pulaski County

  • PAGIS Pulaski County Hub – ( Central Site with information about applications)?


The applications gained a lot of traction from numerous different people due to their ease of use and speed of deployment...

The Mayor of Little Rock posted about our apps... They were on the news and many other social media channels, and even were viewed by the Governor and Head of FEMA...

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PAGIS (Assessment Still In Progress)

Some Lessons Learned So Far...

Now while efforts continue we have already learned a lot and to not break patterns in my newsletters I want to break this down into the simplest form possible.

1. Establish ArcGIS as a core technology in your city and have a system robust enough that you are not trying to hand out licenses and get people a login directly following a disaster.

They need to know and use ArcGIS and know their login before the event. If not you will have to share data sets and data collection applications and tools open to the public... Running the risk that things can be corrupted...

2. Simple Survey123 Web-Based Damage Assessment Form and a version that can be used via upload to the Survey123 Mobile Application. Created in Survey123 Connect. You will need this in case of the need for disconnected data collection...

This covers letting the public submit damage assessments and letting your internal teams go out and collect (Police, Fire, Public Works, Etc...) the more simple the better and make questions required.

3. Mobile Responsive Dashboard (Experience Builder with Mobile and Desktop Dashboards displayed within)

Visualization of the data helps prevent duplication of efforts...

4. Hub site where all the links and instructions, and Dashboard reside.

Central location for everyone to turn to...

5. A plan to grid off the area or separate teams so that they are not collecting or moving out on the same area.

Self-explaining there...

6. Practice and Training...


I don't think anyone can ever truly prepare themselves for what it's like when a tornado strikes your home town let alone your home... But the more we plan and prepare the better we are going to be overall...

My heart goes out to all those who were injured or lost loved ones in this event...


I will follow this up with a more in-depth synopsis in the future...

Until Then...

Keep up the good work...

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It's Up to Us
Elizabeth Cartwright (nee Butcher)

Geospatial & Environmental Scientist

1 年

Amazing work and in such a short time frame too. GIS plays such a key role in disaster response and we need to be prepared with applications such as these to help recovery efforts.

Lauri Dafner

State and Local Government Solution Engineer Manager

1 年

This is fantastic work!

Paul Doherty

Emergency Management Specialist (Geospatial), Urban Search & Rescue Branch, FEMA

1 年

Chase Fisher great work by all involved. AT-TF1 Conway also collected some initial damage observations during their hasty and primary search via SARCOP. Let us know if the Local GIS there would like to see it, we never made a good local contact.

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