Geospatial Team Helps Gauge Mississippi Tornado Impact

Eleven Civil Air Patrol members from nine wings and five regions teamed up online March 26 to evaluate damage to 5,520 structures in the wake of a deadly tornado that struck Mississippi two days earlier.

The CAP members were part of the organization’s geospatial program. They were responding to a Federal Emergency Management Agency request to plan and coordinate storm damage assessment efforts.

While commercial aircraft and satellites gathered vital data March 25, the CAP members sought out open-source video and photography data online, assessing and recording the damaged structures on the ArcGIS web application.

Their efforts helped reinforce a speedy federal disaster declaration for the affected Mississippi counties.

The following day, they processed the aerial imagery gathered and identified numerous damaged and destroyed homes and buildings ravaged by the tornado’s destructive forces.

“The work the Civil Air Patrol Geospatial Team does continues to provide prompt and precise data points in furtherance of our organization’s mission to serve communities,” said Maj. Scott Kaplan, national geospatial program manager. “We are only getting better at this important task that helps those in their hour of need get assistance sooner.”