FEMA: Using GIS
in Disaster Response
The summer of 1992 was supposed to be breathing in and out from the changes ture for all succeeding disasters. The GIS
a relaxing one for David Lawson. in barometric pressure. We heard debris program was formally adopted by FEMA
flying through the windows. It was a dif- in 1994, and the agency has acquired
He had left the US Army after more than ficult time.” extensive information regarding virtually
a decade as a computer systems special- every facet of the United States.
ist, and was spending time as a civilian, If the hurricane was a major blow to
relaxing in the Miami home with his South Florida, the seemingly disorgan- “With information technology,” said
older sister. These were the early years of ized federal response to the disaster was Lawson, “you take the systems and vari-
desktop computing, with cumbersome considered a second. Homeowner Kate ous applications and leverage the informa-
DOS-based programs and limited Hale became an instant folk hero when tion to produce immediate access to all
applications. she was quoted as saying “Where the hell the information you may need, such as
is the cavalry on this one?” how many people are in a given zip code,
Then came Hurricane Andrew, a Catego- or what percentage speak Spanish and will
ry 4 storm with sustained winds of 175 The extent of the devastation pointed need interpreters.
miles per hour that killed 40 people, left out a major problem with the Federal
250,000 homeless, and caused more than Emergency Management Agency: Their “You combine information from census
$30 billion in damage. access to information was limited, slow in data and other data bases, and run queries
coming, and often outdated when it and analyses. These days, the GIS takes
“It was something that stays with you arrived. FEMA advertised for local help information from a wider range of data,
forever,” said Lawson, “and I remember and Lawson was hired. In the Army, Law- including roads, boundary information,
it as if it were yesterday. When it was son had used satellite reconnaissance in- and environmental details such as the
making landfall about 5:00 in the formation to map out missions for troops. river gauges, which provide the exact
morning, the roof started to give way This was the pre-digital age, he said, and latitude and longitude of locations so we
and water was seeping in. “We cut and paste, combining large scale can accurately assess how the rivers are
maps into smaller areas. We literally used behaving.”
tracing paper to sketch out missions.”
“I didn’t envision
Another set of data would include critical
It was clear to FEMA that the agency systems, such as sewage and water treat-
myself as a hard core
needed someone who could pull together ment, and power plants, both convention-
an information system allowing decision al and nuclear. With the latter, the GIS
designer. I was inter-
makers to assess the real time extent of would note the condition of emergency
ongoing problems, and the disposition of evacuation areas in case of a radiological
ested in water issues
federal, state and local resources. disaster.
and water manage-
“We put together a situation map,” Fema’s GIS program led to the moderni-
explained Lawson, “showing where the zation of standard, 100-year flood maps
ment, and worked
shelters were located, where mobile throughout the country, which impacted
kitchens were, where the power outages both the federal flood insurance program
for public entities in
were, where the medical facilities and and local land use planning.
supplies were located and other informa-
dams and reservoir
tion needed. In ten days we had a 66 page Last year, as Hurricane Katrina roared
report showing 17 communities what up the Gulf, Lawson, who heads GIS
management.”
kind of recovery was taking place, and the mapping for the Southeast, began map-
impact of assistance from FEMA.” ping the devastation region before the
storm hit land. FEMA used a computer
That initial situation map, using local simulation program, combined with satel-
“We hunkered down in the half-bath resources and satellite data, became the lite imagery to plot the path of the most
between the garage and the main house, framework of the Global Information Sys- destruction and the affected residential
and the walls started to swell – they were tem for FEMA, running the infrastruc- areas and infrastructure.
http:www.blackengineer.com
USBE & Information Technology I January/February 2007 27
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