Disasters, Drones, and Crowd-sourced Damage Assessment

The 2014 Pacific hurricane season was the fourth most active on record. Iselle was the strongest storm to make landfall in the County of Hawaii. It originated in the Eastern Pacific, intensifying to a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph as it approached the Hawaiian archipelago. Downgraded to a tropical storm, it made landfall at 2:30 AM on Friday, August 8, 2014. Sustained winds were as high as 51 miles per hour (Lanai City Airport), with peak gusts of 73 miles per hour (Oahu Forest National Wildlife Refuge). Peak gusts in Pahoa on Hawaii island were 70 to 75 mph. Thousands of trees were uprooted or broken, many homes were damaged by wind and storm surge and widespread power outages occurred. In addition to downed powerlines, there were many blocked roads as well as debris from flooding and high winds. The storm surge was greatest in the Kapoho area. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of expert systems and advanced technologies for assessing damage caused by Tropical Storm Iselle. Data were collected by the State of Hawaii and the National Guard using a system known as Mobile Emergency Response and Command Interface (MERCI). MERCI was developed to collect multiple types of data for preliminary damage assessments. The system is deployed in the field and users upload data to a secure server to be analyzed in real-time at an emergency operations center. Cameras and sensors mounted on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also referred to as “drones,” provided additional data on damage due to high winds and flooding. After identifying technologies and issues associated with the use of UAS in disasters, the integration of imaging, mapping and damage assessment tools is described. The data are invaluable for rescue, response, and recovery operations. Integration with other software tools such as HAZUS-MH, geographic information systems (GIS) tools, and community based and crowd-sourced information provides new opportunities for using computerized tools for disaster risk reduction. Computational models, expert systems and imagery and data on damaged structures as well as community based mapping exercises can provide critical information on the location and intensity of storm and other damage. In addition, through the deployment of Internet based assessment tools, residents and others can also upload vital information about damage before officials and others can arrive on scene. Notably, while it took weeks to restore power services, cellular phone and Internet services experienced only minimal disruption. The key challenge involves the integration of diverse hardware, software, and systems for quickly processing, interpreting, managing, and using data for damage assessment and decision-making. In addition to the improvement of expert systems and technical support of field-based operations, the next frontier involves better integration of decentralized, crowdsourced data collection using not just smart phones and digital cameras, but also drones and other devices for capturing different data on disasters. The technologies are useful for not just search and rescue, but also for prioritizing the deployment of emergency resources and longer term restoration and recovery of communities. _______________________________________________________ Karl Kim, Ph.D., Professor (Corresponding Author) • Pradip Pant, Ph.D Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Email: [email protected], [email protected] Eric Yamashita National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, Honolulu, Hawaii Email: [email protected] CUPUM 2015 339-Paper