state of our neighborhood. My fi rst reaction was to call my parents, but with no cellular signal and no power, I could not. The entrance and exit to our neighborhood was fl ooded and blocked with fallen trees and poles. It took nearly 40 minutes to drive a few miles because of the amount of road blocks and other debris on the ground,” Concepcion said.
“Flooding, downed trees, and toppled power lines made many roads impassable,” Voiland explained.
As the storm quieted, we went out and, in shock, observed the new state of our neighborhood. My fi rst reaction was to call my parents, but with no cellular signal and no power, I could not.
“In circumstances like this, knowing where the power is out—and how long it has been out—allows fi rst responders to better deploy rescue and repair crews and to distribute life-saving supplies,” he said. “To make the VIIRS data more useful to fi rst responders, the Goddard team scaled the observations onto a base map that emphasizes the locations of streets and neighborhoods. The base map makes use of data collected by the Landsat, Sentinel-2, TanDEM-X, and TerraSAR-X satellites. It also incorporates high- resolution data from OpenStreetMap to show the precise locations of streets and neighborhoods,” Voiland added.
“It is critical that we get this processing done quickly so that we can provide the cleanest and most useful imagery to the National Guard, FEMA, and other fi rst responders,” said Román, who was leading the eff ort from Goddard.
www.hispanicengineer.com
TOP: Bayamon Attorney Eliezer Aldarondo Ortiz, Bayamon City Mayor Ramon L. Rivera Cruz, USACE Task Force Power Restoration Real Estate Chief Eric Sternberg, USACE Puerto Rico Power Grid Program Director Jose Sanchez, and Task Force Power Restoration Commander Col. John Lloyd met on December 22 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, to discuss use of city land space at the Bayamon sports complex for storage of critical materials used in the power restoration mission, including utility poles and other power grid supplies.
BOTTOM: USACE Task Force Power Quality Assurance Manager Andrew Imig (left) and Palo Seco Warehouse Manager Greg Thomas (right) conduct inventory of newly delivered materials at the Palo Seco warehouse. The warehouse is a joint distribution point with our partners, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
FEMA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Other First Responders Every year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assists the Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA in public works and engineering-related
emergency support.
When disasters occur, FEMA assigns various mission assignments to the Army Corps of Engineers for debris removal, emergency and temporary power, regional activation,
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