An Ounce of Prevention
Fort Wayne, Indiana is located at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers. In January 2005
much of the state, including Fort Wayne, experienced massive flooding. The Allen County Emergency Operations
Center (EOC) was activated to coordinate relief and response efforts. This included notifying residents who
were at risk from the flood waters.
Allen County's GIS includes data on floodzones, addresses, roads and aerial photography, among other
datasets. What it didn't include was contact information for the city's most vulnerable residents -
those with physical or mental disabilities who would need help evacuating. That information was provided
on the spot by a group of volunteers who had been collecting it for the past 18 months. The Volunteer
Center had started building a database based on a comment from a police officer about how useful that
information would be during an emergency. When they approached EOC staff, the volunteers wanted to know
if the locations in their database could be shown on a map. Within half an hour, the information was
added to the GIS, at-risk residents living in or near flood zones were identified and resources
allocated to notify them.
Results
- In all, 88 at-risk residents or their caregivers were contacted before flood waters had risen, giving
them time to prepare for an evacuation that, luckily, did not need to take place.
- The County GIS was able to prevent emergencies rather than simply respond to them, acting rather
than reacting to the situation.
- The speed with which the GIS produced workable maps allowed managers the time and ability to more
efficiently allocate emergency resources.
- The cooperation between the County GIS and the Volunteer Center continues as project Safe@Home.
Volunteers continue collecting and updating contact information and the EOC maintains the database with
updates they provide.