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Friday, March 29, 2024

USCG Cadet Uses Crisis Mapping to Help Pinpoint Hurricane Victims

Cadets at the Coast Guard Academy have a lot on their plate. They have to take at least 15 credit hours a semester, participate in athletics, clubs, societies, attend lectures, conduct military training and mentor lower classmen.

First Class Cadet Evan Twarog, from Keene, New Hampshire, does even more. He is a member of the Adventure Club, trilithon team, a cyclist and certified emergency medical technician basic who volunteers at Coast Guard Academy events. He is also a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society. Yet, even though he is an electrical engineering major in the engineering department with a full class load, he enrolled in the introduction to geospatial science class in the science department taught by Lt. Chris Verlinden.

“I enjoyed taking this class with Lt. Verlinden,” said Twarog. “It helped set me on the path to crisis mapping and laid a foundation for the work we were able to do during the hurricanes.”

The geospatial science program aims to introduce future Coast Guard decision makers to theory and use of geospatial technologies for emergency planning and response, facilities management and operational resources management and decision making.

Through his own initiative to learn more about geospatial science and geographic information systems, Twarog learned about crisis mapping and how it can help during emergencies.

Crisis mapping is the real-time gathering, display and analysis of data during a crisis, usually a natural disaster or social/political conflict.

Crisis mapping projects usually allows large numbers of people, including the public and crisis responders, to contribute information either remotely or from the site of the crisis. One benefit of the crisis mapping method over others is that it can increase situational awareness, since the public can report information and improve data management.

Crisis mappers work with data that comes from diverse sources and can be produced for varying purposes.

Twarog began working on taking posts from social media asking for help during an emergency and placing them on a map to give responders a location to search.

“The problem is that when you have 10,000 911 calls coming in at once, it’s going to get bogged down,” Twarog said. “If you’re on hold with 911 for four to six hours, you’re going to lose hope. Then the question is, where are you going to turn next? And that’s going to be Facebook or Twitter.”

On Aug. 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey, a category four hurricane, made landfall, lost strength and became a tropical storm.

Then, it stalled.

For four days it sat along the Texas coast, dropping more than 60 inches of rainfall, causing $125 billion in damage—the same amount caused by Katrina—and at least 68 deaths.

As the hurricane continued to flood Texas, responders had a hard time keeping up with emergency calls.

Coast Guard Lt. Megan Cook, who was part of the Hurricane Harvey incident management team at Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston, said in the immediate aftermath of Harvey hitting land, Coast Guard communications were limited — and when the phones were working, the calls for help did not stop.

Twarog and Cadet First Class Gabrielle Auzenbergs began working with two nonprofits, Standby Task

Force and Humanity Road to help Harvey responders.

Volunteers with the two companies would spend countless hours every day combing through thousands of social media posts for people who needed help.

“There are people from all over the world looking at social media and trying to help,” said Twarog. “People generally want to help. This program gives them the opportunity to help from their homes.”

The majority of the posts are from people in need of rescue. The posts include information such as exact addresses, the number of people in need of rescue and a description of the situation. The volunteers look for specific words such as #Harvey and #Rescue.

Then the posts would be entered into a combined data spreadsheet with the posters location. The volunteers keep track of everyone who has been rescued and continuously update the list.

Twarog and Auzenbergs would then use their knowledge of geospatial science and geographic information systems to map out where people needed help. The map would then be sent to the responders in Texas.

“It is not an exact science,” said Twarog. “The responders do not go address to address, but the map tells them which neighborhoods have the largest number of emergencies.”

Read more at Compass

USCG Cadet Uses Crisis Mapping to Help Pinpoint Hurricane Victims Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Today
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.
Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Todayhttp://www.hstoday.us
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.

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