135 who day to day are often running into burning buildings, which doesn’t involve computers. They appreciate how easy the tool is to document what they just did, because the data helps all of us. It’s a culture of problem-solving and helping, and just getting done what needs to be done.” Data-Driven Preparation and Response Before Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida, FEMA’s response geospatial office provided models of where homes might be damaged. The modeled data drives response, knowing where and how many families will need help. It’s also useful for coordinating and clustering search and rescue teams where the most help will be needed. FEMA’s Tool for Emergency Management and Prioritizing Operations (TEMPO) uses the Priority Operations Support Tool (POST) algorithm to provide predictions for areas of greatest social vulnerability, looking at conditions that would cause people not to evacuate, such as non-English language speakers, financial hardship, or lack of transportation. The US&R teams use this information to plan searches in the hardest-hit areas first, to do what’s called a hasty search, moving fast to get people out quickly. Once that is completed, they then go door to door—this is when the SARCOP map fills in, with first a primary search and then a secondary search to find people who may be trapped. During the Hurricane Ian response, internet connectivity was supported by the federal program FirstNet, which supplies mobile telecommunications infrastructure for first responders, and by the satellite-based internet company Starlink. Connectivity ensured response teams could access and make use of photos US&R collected in QuickCapture, as well as other imagery and video captured from drones. Always Improving Future goals with SARCOP are to apply a Search and Rescue Intelligence Group concept, using its agile framework to pull data together and see it in different views for different groups. Public Safety Virginia Task Force One travels by boat to search the offshore islands that were cut off when Hurricane Ian destroyed the bridges.
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