People You Can Count On
When an F3 tornado crashed through Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in the middle of the night, hundreds of buildings
were damaged or destroyed, and 24 people lost their lives. GIS staff from around the state immediately offered assistance
to the Evansville GIS Department and the Warrick County Surveyor's Office.
Woolpert, LLP was part of Indiana's statewide orthophotography acquisition team, and had the aerial photographs
of Vanderburgh County at their Dayton, Ohio office. Evansville's GIS Project Manager created a GIS layer
of the tornado path, and sent it to Woolpert. Their staff immediately began to pull together the photos,
and quickly delivered a mosaic of the tiles along the path. Staff at IMAGIS, the Indianapolis GIS consortium,
also assisted in correcting technical issues with the files.
Pinnacle Mapping Technologies, also a statewide orthophotography project team member, had the Warrick County
photos in their Indianapolis office. Within a day of being contacted, Pinnacle had the Warrick County imagery
posted to their FTP site for download by the Surveyor's Office.
The Geospatial Analyst at the Indiana National Guard was also able to provide Evansville with photos taken by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing the tornado damage.
Results
When the counties needed it most, the Indiana GIS community - public and private organizations alike - displayed
remarkable volunteer spirit and corporate citizenship. The before and after photography gave responders a clear
overview of the damage, allowing them to coordinate response and recovery efforts more effectively.
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