GIS4048 Module 4: Natural Hazards - Hurricanes

Just in time for the beginning of hurricane season, this module presented an opportunity to work as a contract employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Of interest to FEMA in this scenario was an inventory of structures with structure damage, wind damage or inundation as a result of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall in New Jersey.

Although only classified as a Category 1 hurricane at landfall on the New Jersey coast, Hurricane Sandy was a catastrophic storm due to its enormous size and other factors which amplified the storm surge. States all along the Atlantic coast were impacted to some degree by Hurricane Sandy. Ten states and the District of Columbia were declared major disaster areas by FEMA, making them eligible for funding from the President's Disaster Relief Fund which is managed by FEMA and other federal agencies.

To meet FEMA’s objectives, the track of Hurricane Sandy was plotted. This was done by adding an Excel file to the map and exporting the data to a geodatabase. The Points to Line tool was used to show Hurricane Sandy’s track. That information is shown along with wind speed and barometric pressure on the map below along with the states and district that were declared disaster areas by FEMA. Graticules were added to this map as well. 4° intervals were selected for the graticules since 2° intervals are too closely spaced and 5° intervals are not as easily interpolated as 4° intervals.

Hurricane Sandy Track and
States/District with Major Disaster Declarations

Geodatabase datasets were created for mosaicking two separate sets of aerial imagery (before and after Hurricane Sandy) and imagery effects tools were utilized for comparing pre- and post-hurricane imagery. Attribute domains were created and used to catalog damage in order to compile an inventory of structures along one block of a street in New Jersey. The difficulty with this part of the exercise was determining the degree of damage. Without seeing elevation views of the structures, the extent of any damage was hard to assess. The following map shows the damage assessment and the pre- and post-imagery of structures which were cataloged along one block. 

Hurricane Sandy Damage Assessment
Coolidge Avenue, Toms River Township, New Jersey (2012)

Information from maps such as these would assist FEMA and other organizations to evaluate the extent of damage after a hurricane and to determine how best to allocate resources.