Making the Saddest Maps in America: The First 240 Hours

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Making the Saddest Maps in AmericaThe First 240
Hours

• Talbot Brooks
• Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial
  Information Technologies
• Delta State University
• And
• Twyla McDermmot
• City of Charlotte, NC

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About this presentation

• The contents herein are the results of a
  concerted effort by a dedicated team of
  volunteers from across the nation who responded
  to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in
  Jackson, Mississippi and their subsequent
  deployment to points beyond
• Other courageous efforts were engaged at Stennis
  Space Center (nVision, FL SERT, and others), in
  LA, and across the nation through off-site
  support from ESRI, UC Berkley, and many others.
• We probably learned many of the lessons from
  Hurricane Andrew and 9/11 the hard way.
• The State of Mississippi is deeply grateful to
  all who lent a hand.

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Overview

• The operational perspective (Talbot Brooks)
• An introduction to emergency management
• Hurricane Katrina and GIS
• Lessons learned
• Challenge to Geospatial Professionals
• Making it work (Twyla McDermott)

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The Big Picture Problem in Disaster Response in
Mississippi

• Local government retains the right to make
  decisions about how to respond to an emergency
• This pertains to evacuations and has serious
  ramifications if over-ridden by a higher level of
  government
• MS governance is based on a weak executive branch

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The Big Picture Problem in Disaster Response in
Mississippi

• The following analogy best describes the
  relationship FEMA MS as MEMA local govt
• This requires strong and knowledgeable leadership
  for a coordinated and successful response
• The chain of command is therefore somewhat
  inverted and cannot possibly function effectively

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Bottom Line

• Disasters cannot be effectively managed by large
  committees with competing interests
• The who is responsible for what and at what
  level of government is inconsistent and often
  unclear
• MS did a decent job of overcoming these obstacles
  in the days that followed Katrina the result is
  obvious when comparing LA to MS however
  significant management issues still exist and
  have not even begun to be resolved

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The Emergency Manager

• Emergency management works a lot like the
  military
• Lots of acronyms
• Clear chain of command and well defined roles
• Compartmented at all but the highest levels

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The Alphabet Soup

• ICS Incident Command System
• ESF Emergency Service Function (theres a lot
  of these)
• EOC Emergency Operations Center
• POD Point of Distribution
• USAR Urban Search and Rescue
• DMAT Disaster Medical Assistance Team
• DMORT Disaster Mortuary Team
• IAP Incident Action Plan

GIS MUST CONFORM TO THIS SYSTEM!!!
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A Quick Look at the IAP

• Whats missing???

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27 August 2005 Fair Warning
I was monitoring Katrinas progress through
National Weather Service (Jackson) forecast
discussions, satellite images, and projected
tracks put out by the Tropical Storm Prediction
Center. Not needing pretty maps, I
would quickly georeference these layers with a MS
counties layer to produce maps similar to the one
at right and e-mail them to our local emergency
manager, Kent Buckley. I hand delivered this
one to Kent on Saturday morning and he faxed it
to MEMA in Jackson. Kent then asked if I Would
assemble a team of Delta State students to go to
the State EOC to help craft mission statements
and pitch in where needed
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27 August 2005

• I checked into the Jackson EOC and inquired about
  GIS blank stares or Can you run Hurrevac?
  were the response. I was sent back to my motel
  for the evening and told to prepare for 12 hour
  shifts starting at 6 the next morning.
• At the motel, I started raiding every free public
  spatial data resource available and assembling
  the information into a geodatabase.
• 103 vector and 2 raster layers later, I crashed
  out at about 430

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28 August 2005 Dire Predictions
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28 August 2005

• GIS Objectives
• Expand the thinking of leadership they were not
  grasping the scope and extent of what was about
  to occur
• Get GIS into the game plan in support of
  responders and decision makers
• Help with preparations and response through
  modeling, analysis, and mapping
• Most of Sunday was spent working with Dr. Chris
  Mullen, a structural engineer from Ole Miss,
  running HAZUS. Chris analyzed predicted wind
  fields and I worked on obtaining DEM data to plug
  into HAZUS for the flood portion
• The phone started to ring with overflow calls
  requesting information about the storm. In
  between incoming calls, I started calling for
  help.

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28 August 2005
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29 August 2005 Devastation
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29 August 2005
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29 August 2005
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29 August 2005
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29 August 2005
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29 August 2005
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29 August 2005

• The US Coast Guard discovered us and started
  using our help to translate address to lat/long
  for helicopter rescue.
• The phone continued to ring, but the calls were
  more ominous we started getting some calls
  requesting rescue.
• It was a busy day that included briefing Gov.
  Barbour, printing 1500 feet of maps on the
  plotter, and working with rescuers deploying out
  of Jackson for Camp Shelby and points beyond.
• I had also finished calling my entire GIS address
  book asking for help as the need for mapping
  products kept rising exponentially.

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30-31 August 2005 Alone
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30 August 2005
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30 August 2005
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1-6 September Volunteers!!!
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The Plan

• As volunteers grew (by 4 September, we had over
  60 in Jackson), I added organizational structure
• Data Development This group is tasked with
  enhancing existing geographic databases or
  creating new data sets. These data are from a
  variety of sources. This group will provide the
  GIS data for use by the Mapping/Distribution
  group.
• Logistics Tasked with logistics organization,
  personnel resource scheduling, project
  scheduling, Action Request Forms, GIS trailer
  maintenance needs, ad-hoc needs, etc.
• Mapping/Distribution This group is tasked with
  creating GIS maps in sufficient number, format
  and size for hardcopy output and serving up on
  the Internet.
• Operations Management Tasked with the
  management and coordination of all aspects of the
  response and recovery efforts being supported
  with GIS products and technology.
• Search and Recovery This group is tasked with
  coordinating mapping information for search and
  recovery efforts. This includes lat long
  coordinates for missions, grid maps for search
  area delineation and SAR progress monitoring.
• Tech Support This team provides software and
  geo-data technical support for anyone in need of
  answers to technology questions

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FL SERT
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Operational Key Lessons Learned

• Geographic Information Technologies MUST be a
  part of the operational plan and decision making
  matrix BEFORE an event occurs
• GIT Professionals understand the skills needed to
  support disaster/emergency operations and
  understand the needs of those they might support
• We MUST become familiar with and be ready to use
  the US National Grid system
• Be aware of who the data holders are and have
  agreements in place to share data

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• Plan around standard communications systems use
  Dway Internet, satellite phones, etc
• Personalities play a huge role in success be
  aware and utilize people appropriately and within
  their level of ability (eg. Working with Shoreh
  Elhami to develop a job ad that described both
  the technical and emotional demands)

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Challenge to GIT Professionals

• Work through collaborative environments such as
  GITAs Geospatially Enabling Community
  Collaboration (GECCo) and professional
  organizations to re-establish fundamental skills
  and standards
• Can you navigate with a map and compass as might
  be expected of the responder you just made a map
  for?
• Establish standards for map products (scales, map
  types, etc) and be ready to roll them out in
  very large volumes with little notice
• Create inter-operable standards for geospatial
  technologies and integrate these standards with
  the National Incident Management System and the
  National Response Plan

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Challenge to GIT Professionals

• Open lines of communication to the
  emergency/disaster response community
• Build trust in our capabilities
• Practice/train together
• Get in the room