On the west side of Indianapolis, more than 30 cars derailed when a train from Buffalo, NY, slammed into runaway cars from the rail yards.
Two CSX employees were injured. About 1,900 gallons of diesel fuel, 27,000 gallons of soybean oil, and 21,000 gallons of lubricating
oil spilled.
Response and recovery involved coordination of several agencies, including the County Health Department, fire departments, police,
local emergency management, state emergency management, state environmental management, and CSX. A hundred homes had to be notified,
30 water wells had to be tested, drainage had to be siphoned, and soil removed.
A response center was set up at a nearby library, including the state mobile command vehicle. The recovery team originally started
using Google maps, but quickly decided that these were inadequate for the task. Using GIS data from the Health Department, the City,
and utilities, a set of maps were created and plotted, along with a wall map which became the focus of response efforts. These maps
had the data and detail to show surface drainage, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, water pipes, streets and houses.
The maps provided a single source of information for contacting homeowners, placing siphons, locating well testing, and coordinating cleanup.
Results
This project used GIS as a coordination tool to assist multiple agencies from several jurisdictions in working together. It allowed
quick recognition of important characteristics of the impacted area (houses, drainage, utilities) so that all of the efforts could be
used for recovery. Staging of recovery personnel and equipment were synchronized. Citizens and official could see the impact area,
the potential downstream contamination and the locations of well sampling sites.
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