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GIS Guides Cleanup and Construction in Tornado Aftermath
21 Sep, 2011 By: JoAnne CastagnaIn Joplin, Missouri, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers creates maps to help field personnel remove debris and locate safe shelter sites.
On the evening of May 22, 2011, a multiple-vortex tornado plowed through the community of Joplin, Missouri. Powerful winds reaching 250 mph shattered the windows of St. John's Regional Medical Center, scattering broken glass on top of critically ill patients and sweeping up furniture, supplies, and medicine into a whirlwind within the violently shaking walls of the hospital.
Terri Edens, an emergency room nurse, was working at the hospital when the storm struck. "When things settled down, we evacuated patients and grabbed what medical supplies and water we could and continued their care in a parking lot outside of the hospital.
"When we got outside," she continued, "we saw how extensive the damage was to the hospital and surrounding area. We then started to receive the walking wounded. A nearby production theater was flattened, and its actors and attendees were streaming our way and people from area homes started flooding our ambulance bay doors." 
Bob Hill, a heavy mobile equipment mechanic with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Philadelphia District, surveys the tornado-stricken landscape of the city during a break in debris removal operations. St. John's Regional Medical Center is visible in the background. Image courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Mark Haviland.
St. John's was just one of the critical public facilities severely damaged during this tornado; schools and fire stations also fell within the funnel's path, which measured approximately one mile wide and six miles long. The deadliest and costliest tornado the United States has experienced in more than 50 years severely damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings, and killed more than 150 individuals.
Managing a Major Mess
Soon after the tornado struck, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and partnering agencies were on the scene, organizing a herculean debris removal effort. The tornado left behind approximately 2 million cubic yards of debris, which is equivalent to 400 football fields piled 3 feet high with rubble. USACE has been using GIS for years to coordinate the removal of massive amounts of debris, relying on the technology after Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 at the World Trade Center, and several California wildfires. 
Trucks removing the estimated 3 million cubic yards of debris left by the tornado. Image courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and John Daves.
"The GIS (geographic information system) takes data from various sources, including aerial photographs and electronic data, and combines these layers of information in various ways to create maps. These maps can be used to perform many different missions and solve complex problems," said Stephen McDevitt, GIS, USACE, New York District, who is one of four national action officers responsible for deploying and managing GIS teams throughout disaster regions.
McDevitt deployed Army Corps GIS specialists to Joplin right after the devastation. They were joined by collaborating agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the City of Joplin, and the U.S. National Guard. The team used Esri ArcGIS to create maps of the area.
"From this team of agencies we collected a multitude of information that we layered to create maps, to assist with the many Army Corps missions," said Stephen Long, GIS specialist, Philadelphia District, USACE.
"We combined pre- and post-disaster aerial photography, parcel and property information from the city and county, sewer and water line information from utility companies, and electrical line data. In addition, Army Corps staff in the field collected data using GPS units, which we added to this mix," said Long, who has been an active member of the Army Corps GIS team for 10 years.
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About the Author: JoAnne Castagna
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