DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Severe Windstorm Fairfax - Derecho Storm

 

This mapping assignment was supposed to bring to our attentions the variables and dangers that are thrown into emergency response. In this case we used Fairfax County, Virginia and mapped a collapse in power, phone systems, and live wires. Prior to this assignment I had never heard of the windstorm Derecho so I also learned something new about American history.

 

Starting off we had to map out the data and pinpoint the live wires. We learned that live wires are exposed electrical wires that can cause electrical shock and other dangers especially during a storm. We pinpointed three major ones along the highway intersections Leesburg and Dranesville, Dolley Madison and Capital Beltway, and Georgetown & Leesburg. Live wires in these areas meeting up with rivers are of the most dangerous things for drivers. We also mapped the rivers and where they intersected with the highways so the blue points shown in the last image show where water could flood the highway.

The next part that we mapped were the heat spots. I learned that these were not points of actual temperature but rather like when one pins the tail on the donkey and someone says “You’re getting warmer”, it means that one is closest to the maximum point. These heat maps were in terms of spatial density for the areas affected by phone and power outages. The gradients in color become deeper as one arrives closer to the starting point of the outage and the areas worse affected by it.

With all of this information the last part we mapped were the safety and health features like firehouses, hospitals, and the areas a firetruck can travel to within 10 minutes response time. Showing only 3 firehouses for the county it was lucky that all of the livewires and major disaster areas were within the 10 minute response time needed from the firetrucks. It is also beneficial that there were such a large amount of hospitals dispersed around the major effected areas.

Using this activity and putting all of the information together one can see many of the features needed to carefully plan out a city. Accidents of nature and beyond do happen and it is important that we have clear data for command centers that can view the data and make decisions on where and how to respond. This data proved invaluable in aiding in the wisdom of those type of emergency decisions.

 

 

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.