Week 4 - Participation

This is a two part participation.

1. Video of oil spill ... I took some liberties with this since it was extra credit.



2. Summary

GIS and the Disaster
It is 3:45 am on the morning of January 7th, 2011. The phone rings at the local police station and the night dispatcher answers the phone,
“H-hello … I mean, Jonesboro Police Department”, he answered in a shaken voice.
“Earl! Earl! What is going on?” a frantic caller exclaims.
“I’m … I’m not really sure” the Captain stammers, trying to regain his wits, “I think we just had an earthquake.”
This is how a natural disaster can occur, without warning, in the middle of the night, and in unexpected locations. The follow are some of the roles where GIS can play a role in helping recover and live through a disaster.
4:30 am, City Hall conference room, Jonesboro, Arkansas. A group of city officials, law enforcement and fire fighters that were able to be contacted are assembled. Joining them is a smattering of frightened citizens.
“All right, all right … lets all calm down and listen to what the Mayor has to say” shouted the Chief of Police.
“Thanks Tom … as we all know, we have just suffered a significant earthquake in our area and reports are coming in all over the county of widespread power outages and damages to structures. We are currently assembling a team to assess the damage and to start trying to determine where folks are that may be injured and need our assistance …” the Mayor stated.
“I can’t reach my husband at the factory in Lake City!” a voice rang out from the citizen crowd.
“Mary, we are trying to get a holt of someone from the plant as we speak … I will let you know as soon as we do,” the Mayor offered as reassurance. “We have contacted Little Rock and the Governor has issued an emergency order … help is on the way.”
Meanwhile, in Little Rock a group of emergency responders are meeting. The team has a map laid out on the table that depicts the underlying topography of Jonesboro, Arkansas and surrounding areas. Also, plotted on the map are the roads, hospitals, fire and rescue facilities, as well as schools.
“We need to assess the viability of these facilities ASAP … we may need to set up triage in as many as are still operational,” Bobby Miller, the operations leader directed. “And we need to know where any and all landing strips are available to us to get in and out the area.”
“I’m already on it,” answered Steve Thomas, the GIS specialist for the State Emergency Management Center. “We’ll have maps uploaded to your PDA’s by the time your on the ground in Jonesboro.”

The GIS specialist collects and analyzes data and information to provide it to individuals in a manner useful to their specific need. In the hypothetical case above getting outside responders the information on an area they are unfamiliar with allows them to learn about the location they are headed to before arrival so they can acclimate quicker thus potentially saving lives.

In the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20th, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform had an explosion that eventually lead to it sinking and an ensuing oil leak that threatens the entire Gulf of Mexico. Teams of analyst have been studying the inventories of everything from shoreline habits to intercoastal wetland fauna to try and prepare plans for protection and rescue of affected species. In addition, human affect is also being analyzed. Gulf dependant business and property damage is estimated from data compiled to project the long term effect on our economy. These evaluations give lawmakers the information they need to determine how resources are allocated to help in the cleanup and recovery.

In case you’re wondering, Mary’s husband that was working at the factory is alright. The designers of the plant had used GIS data to analyze sites when choosing a location for their new facility. Some of the layers provided with the evaluation were geohazards which indicated the fault lines near the area and the engineers designed the facility accordingly.