Jeremy
At the time of this writing (Tuesday afternoon), many Marylanders are still digging out of last weekend’s blizzard, which dumped at least two feet of snow in most locations. Maryland is in its fourth day of a State of Emergency with a new snowstorm approaching the region with the possibility of dumping an additional foot or more of snow. In my Baltimore City neighborhood, the impending snowstorm has residents scrambling back to the grocery store, clearing their flat roofs, and in some cases working with their neighbors to shovel out their block that has yet to be cleared from the last snowstorm. Once the next storm begins, I along with many other Marylanders will likely hunker down indoors to wait out the storm.
Canton residents removing snow
However, it’s important to remember that there are many people who must work during extreme weather events. Among others, these include:
- Snow removal personnel
- Utility workers
- Emergency responders
- Emergency management professionals
Towson University’s Center for GIS (CGIS) has supported the Maryland Emergency Management Agency’s (MEMA) State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) during times of disaster. In the fall of 2003, CGIS employees provided 24/7 support to the MEMA’s SEOC during Tropical Storm Isabel by fielding ad-hoc map requests and conducting spatial analysis tasks, including providing reasonable estimates of the areas that would be flooded by the storm using storm surge height predictions made by the National Weather Service. One of the outcomes of this experience was a white paper developed by Dr. Jay Morgan who was then Director of CGIS which outlined lessons learned regarding the use of GIS by the MEMA’s SEOC before and during a disaster.
CGIS continues to support the MEMA’s SEOC during disasters. Throughout this last blizzard two CGIS employees, Joe Gibson and Matt Miller, provided on-site support to the MEMA’s SEOC by mostly fielding ad-hoc map requests. With the continuation of Maryland’s State of Emergency and the threat of another major snowstorm, Joe and Matt may be asked to support the MEMA’s SEOC for the second time in a span of one week.
Visit NOAA’s interactive map if you’re interested in local snowfall totals from last week’s storm in Maryland and Northern Virginia.
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Jeremy Monn
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