Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2016 18:04:12 EDT
Summary: USGS deploys hundreds of storm-tide surge sensors along the Atlantic coast and readies for inland river flooding.
This is an overarching summary USGS Water Mission Area Activities related to Hurricane Matthew, which is currently in the Caribbean and projected to track along the Atlantic Coast later this week. USGS has gotten a Mission Assignment from FEMA which will enable USGS to acquire storm-tide flood water-level and extent data at hundreds of coastal locations from Florida to Virginia. This data will be acquired by deploying autonomous non-real time Storm-Tide Surge Sensors (SSS) and real-time Rapid Deployment Gages (RDG). At present, USGS has 74 personnel along the coast deploying 289 SSS units and 30 RDG units over the next couple days:
(see http://water.usgs.gov/floods/events/2016/matthew/).
The data collected by these sensors at the hundreds of coastal locations are needed by FEMA and other Federal, State, and local agencies to monitor storm-tide flood conditions as they develop. Additionally, using appropriated USGS GWSIP funding, the USGS is preparing to make inland riverine flood-flow measurements needed to calibrate our existing real-time streamgages in areas that will experience flooding. These measurements will allow for reliable, accurate, and uninterrupted flow of publically-accessible river flow and water level data. Additionally, the USGS expects to deploy real-time RDG streamgages that will temporarily augment our water-level monitoring capabilities at currently ungaged priority locations on inland rivers. The data from these streamgages (existing network streamgages and RDG streamgages, both funded by USGS GWSIP funds) provide the data needed by the National Weather Service to calibrate river forecast models to enable accurate forecasting of the time and height of floods. Knowledge of the storm-tide extent and height (from FEMA Mission Assignment Funds) and the river heights and flows (from GWSIP funds) allows FEMA along with various other Federal, State, and local agencies to organize and prioritize disaster relief as the flood passes, and quickly confirm or revise floodplain boundaries so that flood-insurance payments and rebuilding efforts lead to more resilient communities.
The deployment of RDGs and SSS provide sub-second “snapshots” of the storm-surge water surface throughout the impacted areas as Matthew approaches, makes landfall, and passes on, which will allow FEMA to know exactly where the timing and height of the storm-tide surge to enable better mitigation decisions in the aftermath of this event. When the SSS data is combined with wind speed and direction data (which the USGS also helps collect), the National Hurricane Center will use this information to verify and improve storm-surge models for coastal floodplain mapping and future storm-surge flood forecasting.
As each SSS and RDG gets deployed, the field crew is updating the flood event viewer (clickable mapping application) to allow emergency managers (including FEMA and National Hurricane Center) to know the locations of each sensor deployed. For each RDG sensor, as Hurricane Matthew pushes water onshore, the user can click on the symbol and get the real-time data. The web site for the flood event viewer map for Hurricane Matthew is:
http://water.usgs.gov/floods/events/2016/matthew/