50 about this? What would this look like? Can we do something like that?’” Payne said. To those questions, and any others, Inskeep said the GIS analysts never say no. They developed their own inundation map, which included a curious inland spot the GIS determined was likely to flood. When a levee was breached, the curious little spot filled with water. It turned out to be the location of a drain they had been unaware of. Payne, impressed at the accuracy, became a fervent fan of both the GIS team and the technology. The Situational Awareness Experience gives users a quick overview of what is where in Scott County, Iowa. That was especially true in 2019. “Between January 1 and May 31, the longest span of consecutive days without rain or snow was five days in April,” Payne said. The ground had been saturated with water before it froze. City staff braced for Mississippi River flooding to reach record levels. That’s when Payne approached the GIS team members for the first time, asking if they could make a flood inundation map. What would it look like if the flood level gauge—which had never surpassed 22.3 feet—reached 26 feet, for example? Where was that water going to go? “I realized that they welcomed dumb questions from emergency management people like me saying, ‘Hey, what
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