Lab 4 - Hurricanes

GIS 4048

In this week's lab we continued with Natural Hazards with the emphasis being on hurricanes and their destructive power.  To begin the lab I was asked to generate the path of Super Storm Sandy which struck the East Coast on October 29, 2012 just north of Atlantic City, New Jersey.  The map points were generated using xy data from a pre-existing spreadsheet.  When the 31 points were generated I was able to plot the path of the storm utilizing the Point to Line tool in ArcToolbox.  I also created a unique symbol to represent the storm's symbology.  Color coding this symbology allowed me the ability to show the intensity of the storm along its track.  Each symbol was then labeled to identify both the wind speed and barometric pressure.  The last thing to do was to add my graticules to identify the longitude and latitude, as well as the basic map essentials.  With this done I was able to produce the map shown below.

The second deliverable in this lab is a Before and After map of a location devastated by Hurricane Sandy's landfall, Toms River, New Jersey.  This part of the lab struck home to me as I am a New Jersey resident.  The towns and shoreline impacted by the storm are locations I frequent often. 

To begin this lab I first consolidated the data I needed into a geodatabase that would be used to work with the data directly.  I created a Mosaic of Before and After images of the area affected by Sandy.  Then I added a new Feature Dataset to the Geodatabase that contained New Jersey Counties, Municipalities, State and Road feature classes.  Adding the Study area I was able to identify the area that I would be studying for structural damage.  With the creation of a new point feature class I was able to add a domain that would allow anyone adding points to this feature class a limited selection on coding the attribute data.  Using effect tools such as swipe and flicker, I was then able to compare the before and after aerial images to determine how structures were affected.  I utilized the parcel layer to identify where a marker should be placed, and  I rated how bad the Structural Damage was, as well as the Wind Damage sustained.  I also was able to identify the property type and if the house was inundated.  All these attributes were added to the Structure Damage feature class.  With all the data gathered I then symbolized the damage and prepared a table showing the results.

I identified 9th Street as my primary focus, and began to develop my map with the data provided.  I added the basic map elements and produced the following map.

As I stated above, this lab and the Storm affected me personally.  A week prior to the storm I was at a MACUrisa conference with several GIS Professionals and ESRI representatives in Atlantic City.  At the time, the storm was still in the Caribbean and I sat with one of the top Federal USGS GIS staff in the Northeast.  I asked him directly, "What do you think about this storm in the Caribbean?  You think it will hit here?"  He smiled and said, "No, tho

se storms always come up here and make a right turn.  There's no way it will turn left."  A week later, it turned left.  Hopefully what we learned here in New Jersey will mitigate the hazards we face in the future.