The historic Category Five hurricane made landfall in late October, devastating much of the western parishes in the country. Crisis Ready, a research-response initiative at Harvard and Direct Relief, gathered recent data that predicts that between 600,000 and 700,000 residents are without power after catastrophic winds of 175 miles per hour impacted the island.

In the hours and days that followed Melissa’s initial blow, Crisis Ready reported a “cascading infrastructure failure” that has left Jamaicans with extremely limited connectivity.

Cellular towers failed, and backup generators were depleted within the first two days. While some areas have power, prolonged power outages are anticipated.

Through the Microsoft AI for Good application, Direct Relief’s research and analysis team has estimated that about 76% of structures in the Black River area have been damaged following the storm. This data is difficult to confirm, as it includes cloud-covered areas. However, the application considers visible roof damage. Therefore, overall building damage is likely higher than reported.

An estimated 20 hospitals and 11 health centers are documented for the island. So far, four hospitals have reported major impacts from oxygen shortages, roof collapses, and child patients who needed airlifts to more secure facilities: Savana-la-Mar Hospital, Cornwall Regional Hospital, Black River Hospital, and Noel Homes Hospital.  

Due to limited to no connectivity, it is difficult to pinpoint population changes within the first week of the storm. However, several parishes along the western side of the island saw more than a 50% decline in population density within three days of the hurricane’s landfall.

Specifically, Saint James saw a 74% decline, followed by Westmoreland at 67%, and Saint Elizabeth, which saw a 65% decline.

Saint Elizabeth’s diverse population increases the risk of vulnerability. The parish has the highest percentage of residents age 60 and over at 14%.

According to Crisis Ready, residents age 60 and over are less likely to have evacuated and will be difficult to reach due to limited connectivity. The data hub suggests that nearly 14,000 elderly residents within Saint Elizabeth are without connectivity.

This group of residents is likely to have a difficult time managing chronic diseases and are more likely than other age groups to be physically isolated with little to no tools to contact other people.

Several parishes, including Saint Elizabeth, are home to many children under the age of five. Power outages in these parishes increase the risk of dehydration, waterborne diseases, and acute respiratory illnesses in young children as infrastructure conditions are compromised.

Many families are also at risk of separation as they seek shelter.

The post Using Technology to Measure Power Outages, Critical Infrastructure Damage After Hurricane Melissa appeared first on Direct Relief.

Hurricane Helene is expected to drop up to 15 inches of rain in some areas, and could cause storm surge of up to 20 feet in places. Winds may exceed 156 miles per hour. “This is not a survivable event for those in coastal or low-lying areas,” cautioned Jared Miller, the sheriff of Wakulla County, located in Florida’s Big Bend region where the storm is expected to make landfall.

Helene has not yet made landfall, but heavy rain, flooding, and strong winds were already damaging Florida communities on Thursday.

In Hurricane Helene’s Path

Population dynamics data from Meta’s Data for Good indicate that many in danger’s path are choosing to evacuate. Using anonymized data, CrisisReady, a research-response initiative at Harvard and Direct Relief, recorded areas with increase and decrease of population in the hours and days prior to Helene’s landfall. For example, St. George’s Island off the Florida coast registered a population decline of 92% on Wednesday evening. Coastal areas from Lower Grand Lagoon to Apalachicola show declines of 25 to 50%.

Although tropical storms are extremely common in Florida, Hurricane Helene poses an extraordinary danger. In addition, Helene’s path is similar to that of Hurricane Idalia, which battered the Big Bend region last year. Idalia’s impacts were widespread and severe, and some communities threatened by Helene are still in recovery.

Andrew Schroeder, Direct Relief’s Vice President of Research and Analysis, noted that there was a significantly higher incidence of movement away from coastal towns rather than inland areas. In the small town of Steinhatchee, for example, which experienced up to 12 feet of storm surge during Idalia, population data showed a 53% decrease.

Shelters were open and receiving evacuees on Thursday, as a state of emergency was active in 61 of Florida’s 67 counties.

Evacuations cause urgent health needs as people flee without lifesaving medications and medical devices, shelter together in close quarters, and experience trauma — a mental health danger that evidence shows is compounded by repeated exposure to natural disasters.

But evacuation is not always straightforward. Population dynamics data indicate a change in the number of people occupying an area — although Schroeder notes the correlation is somewhat lower in rural areas than urban ones — but it does not track the movements of individuals, and sometimes the data offer surprises.

As an example, Schroeder pointed out that Citrus County, currently bracing for dangerous storm surge, was registering a 12% population increase. The county has the oldest population in this area of Florida — 36% of residents are over 65 years old —and the highest percentage of people who use powered medical devices.

“That’s a pretty high vulnerability,” he said. A storm like Helene can knock out power for days, causing serious risks to people who rely on electricity to power devices.

Many people in high-risk counties will not evacuate, Schroeder said, and not everyone should. Although administrative divisions like cities and counties are useful for determining emergency measures and communicating information, the danger isn’t equal everywhere, and local guidance will vary.

But not everyone who would be safest evacuating will do so — often because they’re not able to do so. While Direct Relief’s Research and Analysis team noted that 1.9 million people in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia are threatened by hurricane-force winds connected to Helene’s storm system, more than 343,000 of those people are below the federal poverty line — about 18%. A lack of financial resources — along with disabilities and mobility issues, language barriers, and other social determinants for health — make it much more difficult to evacuate, and decrease the likelihood that someone will do so.

Federally qualified health centers and other first responders often describe the most urgent need in the aftermath of a storm coming from people who had no choice but to ride out the storm at home. Health center staff have described people in dire need of food, clean water, tetanus vaccines, wound care, and replacements for medications like insulin — which need to be delivered through flooded streets.

Direct Relief-funded mobile medical units and emergency response vehicles often fill these needs, navigating streets filled with debris and lingering floodwaters to care for patients endangered by the storm and its aftermath.

Health Risks and Displacement

Whether people evacuate or shelter in place, hurricanes and other extreme weather events have severe and long-lasting impacts on health.

Chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension can spiral out of control in the aftermath of a major disaster, as care and access to medicines are interrupted. Shelter settings cause outbreaks of Covid-19, diarrheal disease, and other infectious illnesses. Water-borne diseases, physical injury, and tetanus threaten health as people return to flooded communities, clear damage, and begin to rebuild.

Post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety are a long-term threat as well, affecting new people and increasing the severity of existing conditions. New research is emerging that people in storm- and wildfire-prone areas, exposed to repeated threats, evacuations, and impacts over time, are particularly likely to experience compound effects.

Direct Relief’s Response

In preparation for these events, Direct Relief equips health centers throughout tropical storm-vulnerable regions with hurricane preparedness packs, large-scale modules stocked with the medications and medical supplies most commonly needed in the aftermath of an extreme weather event. Several of these HPPs are within or near Hurricane Helene’s projected path.

Within the past two weeks, Direct Relief delivered 10 shipments of essential medicines and supplies to six partners located in the storm’s projected path as part of the organization’s ongoing safety net support program. The program supplies community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and charitable pharmacies with medical support, which is used to treat low-income and uninsured patients and ensure greater resilience.

The organization will assess needs and potential response measures stemming from Hurricane Helene in the coming days. Transportation support and medical procurement, emergency medical backpacks, hygiene kits, new hurricane preparedness packs, and emergency grants are all frequent priorities in the aftermath of a tropical storm.

The post Evacuees Flee Florida Coast as Massive Hurricane Helene Closes In appeared first on Direct Relief.

The event was moderated by Andrew Schroeder, co-founder of CrisisReady and Vice President of Research and Analysis for Direct Relief. CrisisReady, a research-response initiative at Harvard and Direct Relief, has been tracking trends in Haiti, where Schroeder said the current situation is the most dire since the 2010 earthquake, with violent attacks on hospitals, police stations, and financial institutions becoming increasingly commonplace, along with widespread food insecurity. Nearly 5 million Haitians are experiencing acute food insecurity, according to the United Nations.

“It’s impacted every area of society and caused a mass displacement event,” he said.

Dr. Natalie Colas, Internist and Medical Director at St. Luke Family Hospital in Port-au-Prince, described challenges at every level of the health system in Haiti, from health providers leaving the island to patients putting off coming to the hospital to existing staff being unable to get to work due to kidnapping risk.

St. Luke Foundation operates 10 health facilities, about half of which are in the capital. The organization has taken safety measures for employees, including allowing them to stay at a guest house for up to a week if demonstrations prevent them from getting home safely.

When able, health providers will give patients a three-month supply of prescription medication instead of monthly to limit trips that could put them at risk of gang violence, she said. But supplies and medications are scarce.

“Without an immediate option to refill them in the coming days, I don’t know what we’re going to do… It’s really difficult for us to run the hospital,” she said. “For now, we have a little bit of reserve for emergency patients.”

Only two or three public hospitals in the metro area remain open, she said.

St. Luke’s has oxygen production capability, an asset that allows them to continue treating patients with respiratory needs without having to make dangerous trips outside the facility to fill up oxygen canisters. Direct Relief supported the facility with oxygen canisters during the Covid-19 pandemic, and recently supported the hospital with emergency operating funds.

A noticeable spike in gang-related violence and fatalities has occurred in the country since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, said Sandra Pellegrini, Latin America and Caribbean Regional Specialist with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, or ACLED. The nonprofit has been tracking news events in the country to identify trends.

Pellegrini said that civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence of armed groups and increased use of kidnapping and sexual violence, which is underreported but still “striking” in the data set.

The number of active gangs has also increased in recent years, and violence has expanded beyond the capital into the Artibonite and Centre regions, where violence has doubled. Gangs have focused on taking control of major highways and sea access with interceptions of supply boats.

Xavier Vollenweider, Director of Mobile Data Partnerships with Flowminder.org, a platform that has processed mobile data from cell provider Digicel, the main cell provider in Haiti, and has been monitoring population movement. Port au Prince has seen its population decrease since 2021, while cities like Cap Haitien and Les Cayes have increased.

Marie Rose Romain Murphy, Co-Founder and Board President of the Haiti Community Foundation and ESPWA Inc., focused on humanitarian and disaster response. The International Office of Migration has been monitoring displacement, and more than 116,000 people have fled the capital for Haiti’s southern peninsula, where Roman Murphy’s foundation operates.

The destabilization and destruction of infrastructure have been decades in the making and compounded by natural disasters, she said. Romain Murphy encouraged keeping local communities and organizations at the table where decisions are being made instead of from a distance. “It starts with community and ends with community,” she said

Direct Relief, which has a long history of supporting Haitian health facilities through crisis and natural disasters, recently committed $1 million to local health facilities to support operating expenses and staff costs.

The post In Haiti, Conflict, Displacement, and Health Challenges Converge appeared first on Direct Relief.

Hurricane Idalia made landfall at Keaton Beach in Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 3 storm at 8 a.m. ET on August 30th, 2023. The storm had been downgraded from a Category 4 but still maintained winds of 125 mph.

The impact of the storm has resulted in flooded streets, closed airports, canceled flights, and widespread power outages.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee warned that certain locations might be uninhabitable for weeks or even months due to wind damage and storm surge barriers.

CrisisReady, a joint effort of Harvard University and Direct Relief, is creating situation reports to inform relief efforts. These reports analyze anonymized and aggregated data on the movement of Facebook users to track changes in population densities, highlighting displacement in affected areas of Florida. They also contain information about baseline population vulnerabilities and local healthcare infrastructure, such as facilities, outpatient centers, and hospitals.

The report below provides data on population density changes in northern and central Florida as of 7:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, the evening prior to Hurricane Idalia’s landfall. It highlights population displacement during the period evacuation orders were issued by state and county officials.

Additionally, the report provides information on baseline population vulnerabilities and the status of local healthcare infrastructure.

Key Observations

Counties with Population Decline Prior to Landfall

Predominantly in the Big Bend and inland areas:

• Madison
• Suwanee
• Levy
• Lafayette
• Wakulla
• Echols
• Dixie
• Taylor
• Franklin

Counties with Significant Declines

Coastal regions with declines of 10% or more where evacuation orders were issued:

• Dixie
• Taylor
• Franklin

Areas registering population drops of 45% or more before the storm:

• Panacea
• Steinhatchee
• St. Mark’s
• Crystal River
• Homosassa

Note: Steinhatchee reported storm surge levels over 8 feet as of the morning of August 30th, indicating extreme risk.

Social Media Usage & Mobility Data:

Florida communities in the Big Bend area typically exhibit:

• High Facebook usage rates with location services (15%-25%).
• Consequently, there is a high degree of representativeness in mobility data.

The post Hurricane Idalia: Tracking Evacuations and Population Movement appeared first on Direct Relief.

Humanitarian aid organizations continue response efforts, but those on the ground say it will be a long-term effort to recovery. Data scientists and information managers have used data analysis to track mobility patterns, understand current needs, map damage to buildings and health infrastructure, and effectively share information.

Crisis Ready, a collaboration between Direct Relief and the Harvard Data Science Initiative, hosted Data in Crisis: Responding to the Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria at Harvard on March 3 with over 200 online participants and many others in person.

The nearly two-hour conversation centered on how crisis response organizations have used novel data sources and methods to support Turkey and Syria. The presenters shared their organization’s response models, how to make ethical and effective use of data, and key takeaways from the disaster so far. While open data has helped to determine where people are going and their current needs, scientists say they still expect a drastic undercount of the displaced population as first responders and families continue to look for residents.

The in-person and Zoom event included internationally known speakers: Dr. Andrew Schroeder, Vice President of Research and Analysis at Direct Relief and Co-Director of CrisisReady; Dr. Caroline Buckee, Co-Director of CrisisReady and Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard University; Dr. Abdulfatah Elshaar, Chairman of the Syrian Medical Society and Internal Medicine Physician at Sturdy Memorial Hospital; Ozge Acar, Technical Coordinator at NeedsMap Social Cooperative; Dr. Samer Attar, a medical volunteer at the Syrian American Medical Society and orthopedist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; Nathaniel Raymond, lecturer at Yale University in the Humanitarian Research Lab; and Can Unen of OpenStreetMap (HOTOSM).

Schroeder opened the event and shared that over 217,000 structures have been destroyed or deemed unsafe, including 520,000 housing units. Across the globe, digital volunteers have mapped buildings and their degree of damage in the earthquake area. Unen from HOTOSM explained to meeting viewers how precision mapping and open information sharing with international response agencies have been beneficial to saving lives.

With millions displaced, medical supports remain the top reported need: antibiotics, access to chronic disease medications, acute trauma support for search and rescue, and support for the displaced staff of medical organizations.

Attar, who volunteered as a surgeon in Syria, said being on the ground changes one’s perspective. There were limited resources that required doctors to make critical triage decisions. He said that they treated two to three patients on the same bed or even on the floor–most of whom had body parts that had been crushed by shattered buildings.

The surgeon said it was a sobering experience and one where he felt like his contributions were “barely making a dent.” Attar said that doctors performed dozens of surgeries per day, but many more people still need critical medical care.

“There wasn’t a lot of heavy machinery, so we would find people digging through the rubble trying to find relatives, or whoever they could find, using their hands or whatever they could find to dig them out,” Attar said.

Dr. Elshaar, also from SAMS, shared that the situation in Syria is one of the worst humanitarian crises in history, given the dire circumstances of Covid-19, the Russian and Ukraine war, the spread of cholera in Syria, and now the earthquake. He shared that hospitals and clinics have been targeted over the past 12 years of civil war in the country, making access to care more difficult.

The SAMS doctor shared an assessment of immediate needs: wound care, amputations and prosthetics, and medication for diabetes, hypertension, cancer, maternal/pediatric health, cholera treatment, and mental health trauma.

Though the situation in Turkey remains dire, access to data is increasing. Mobility data from Data for Good at Meta, analyzed by organizations like CrisisReady, show that population density is shifting away from highly impacted areas in Syria and Turkey. Survivors of the earthquakes are moving to less impacted areas of the country, including large cities like Ankara and Istanbul and rural areas with less damage. However, it’s unclear what housing will be available to them long term. Many are staying in a range of temporary and ad hoc shelters.

Dr. Buckee shared that institutional challenges are often greater than data challenges for epidemiologists trying to model the spread of infectious diseases like cholera and arboviruses.

She shared that having preexisting partnerships before disaster responses is key and that following simple models during a disaster will reap success in determining which populations are at risk, where displaced people may relocate, and identifying the medium to the long-term impact of infectious and non-communicable diseases. The simpler the models, the better for quick and efficient decision-making.

Some said they use social media to track movement, but real-time information gaps persist.

Social media also plays a key role in mapping the landscape of needs at scale. Projects on digital platforms like NeedsMap are at the center of efforts to report where individuals may need food, shelter, and medical care. They can also highlight where the capacity exists to meet those needs.

While helpful, Raymond reminded the crowd that information must be treated with high degrees of care for both individual privacy and community protection. Data can make an enormous impact on disaster response, but the responsibility exists to ensure that vulnerable populations aren’t exposed to further risk.

Dr. Andrew Schroeder contributed to this story.

The post Follow the Data: CrisisReady Shares Emergency Response Models for Turkey-Syria Earthquakes appeared first on Direct Relief.

International aid and response organizations are stepping in to support the Turkish relief effort, but it’s still early in the response process. Those who have been able to escape have relocated toward less dense areas, just a few kilometers away from the damage, according to findings from CrisisReady, a research-response initiative at Harvard and Direct Relief, supported by grants from the Harvard Data Science Initiative, Google.org, Data for Good at Meta, and the World Bank GFDRR.

CrisisReady has been publishing daily reports that are shared with responding government agencies, search and rescue groups, and agencies working in the disaster’s wake.

Andrew Schroeder, Direct Relief’s Vice President of Research and Analysis and co-director of CrisisReady, said that it’s too early to determine how much movement is expected across Turkish borders. However, movement patterns within the country signal people moving away from downtown core areas where buildings are unstable and damage is widespread. Anonymized and aggregated data from Meta shows a glimpse into the shift in population density leading up to, during, and after the earthquake. Internet outages were initially reported after the quake, but Schroeder said improvements have already been made.

A Crisis Ready report from Wednesday showed a population decline of almost 82% within Kahramanmaras, where the earthquake struck. Neighboring towns and areas just two to three miles away saw increases in population, suggesting that residents were fleeing more dense parts of the area to get away from tall and unstable buildings, “which is totally rational behavior because the downtown areas are where most of the collapsed or at-risk buildings are,” Schroeder said. “And that pattern is repeated in a bunch of cities and so you see an increase in (less dense) areas.”

Due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, mobility data in Syria isn’t publicly available.

According to Schroeder, Gaziantep, Turkey, has seen similar population shifts, as those who were able to escape have moved to the outer limits of the area, where fewer tall buildings are present.

However, the data also shows a small influx of people into the larger towns and cities, presumably first responders and emergency supporters who are working to rescue others from the rubble.

Schroeder shared that it’s too early to determine long-distance movement and given the infrastructure damage many may not have the option to leave the area.

As rescue attempts continue, looming issues like housing, transportation, and access to resources will become major issues in southern parts of Turkey. Roads and railways were likely damaged by the earthquakes, preventing long-distance travel. It’s unknown how many people will be able to safely return to their homes, or if residents will be forced to shelter elsewhere. The need for resources, or everyday needs, like food, clothing, and medications, is only expected to increase.

The post Mobility Data Shows Movement Away from Some Urban Areas After Deadly Earthquake appeared first on Direct Relief.

Andrew Schroeder, Direct Relief’s Vice President of Research and Analysis, is a contributor to the publication, and co-director of CrisisReady, a research-response initiative at Harvard and Direct Relief, supported by grants from the Harvard Data Science Initiative, Google.org, Data for Good at Meta, and the World Bank GFDRR.

“The data needed to make health systems and emergency management approaches more resilient to these hazards, and more responsive to the needs of affected populations, are sequestered in silos across private corporations and public agencies,” the report’s introduction states. “In two case studies, we describe how our research team at CrisisReady negotiated access to privately held and novel data sources like anonymized geolocation data from cell phones while striking a balance between data security and public health utility.”

Read the entire article here: CrisisReady’s novel framework for transdisciplinary translation: Case-studies in wildfire and hurricane response

The post New Article Explores Climate-Related Disasters and Mobility Data appeared first on Direct Relief.

Heavy rainfall in Southern Pakistan and melting glaciers in the country’s northern mountains have caused massive floods and flash floods that continue to devastate districts across the region. The floods have killed at least 1,191 people, 399 of whom were children, since the flooding began in mid-June at the beginning of the monsoon season. In addition to this, a reported 3,554 individuals have been injured. The National Disaster Management Authority stated that as of August 29, 2022, more than 33 million people have been impacted and more than 1 million houses have been destroyed.

The floods have spawned a critical humanitarian crisis as damage and displacement increase across the country. So far, 66 districts have been officially declared “calamity hit.” An estimated 50,000 people have been evacuated since rescue efforts began. Pakistan’s meteorological office has predicted that more flash floods are expected throughout September.

CrisisReady has published an interactive map that shows population movement patterns driven by the floods between August 13, 2022, and September 5, 2022. Data reflecting population movement originated from selected level 2 administrative units of Pakistan, including Karachi, Larkana, Malakand, Quetta, and Sukkur.

The red arrows (shown below) on the map show the directional patterns of population movement. The size (width) of the arrows correlates with the volume of individuals displaced from the selected origins. The larger the arrow, the greater number of movement vectors. Transparency of arrows indicates the baseline population traveling between the origin and the destination under the pre-crisis situation.

Explore the dashboard here.

The maps were generated using data provided by Data for Good at Meta. For more information about the disaster population maps provided by Data for Good at Meta. Data on flood extent is gathered using the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), an instrument that collects visible and infrared images and global observations of the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans.

The post Catastrophic Floods Devastate Southern Pakistan: CrisisReady Responds With New Data Reports appeared first on Direct Relief.

At an online panel discussion hosted today by CrisisReady – a research partnership between Direct Relief and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – speakers from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), Harvard University, Columbia University, American Red Cross, Mariposa County’s Health and Human Services Division, and California Conference of Local Health Officers shared new findings on the public health impact of wildfires.

The panel also discussed the latest technologies integrating disparate data sources into more centralized, easier-to-read platforms.

“We’ve got several pieces of research converging all at one time,” said Andrew Schroeder, VP of research and development at Direct Relief and co-director of CrisisReady, during a pre-panel interview.

Schroeder and the panelists highlighted a new health resilience mapping tool funded by Google.org, which is still in development but can provide actionable info. It contains data on social vulnerability, population movement, infrastructure, and the given incident, which it layers onto one interactive map.

The new research also covered the exposure of acute care hospitals to wildfire risk and the medical impact of power outages.

Research and new technologies have played an increasingly central role in state-level emergency responses for years, as decision-makers have seen the benefits of data-driven decisions.

“We have more data, but data systems and tools have not kept up,” Schroeder said.

But that is starting to change. At CalOES, the Data & Geospatial Unit is tasked with serving in a coordination role during disaster events, pulling real-time data on shelters, assets, resources, power outages, and demographic data, including health.

“We’re like traffic control throughout the process,” said Eric Howard, a geospatial data scientist in the unit. “We collect info from other organizations and compile it to assist with the response,” he said.

Howard said his team uses products at various levels of government. In an example of one use case, the data they process appears on the state’s Emergency Operations Center wall.

“They depend on that information to make decisions on a daily basis,” Howard said.

According to Howard, there is often strong demand for power outage information at the county level. He added that centralizing relevant data into one place has allowed county and local decision-makers and responders to best deploy their resources in an optimized, coordinated way.

Counties in California shoulder critical responsibilities concerning public health and disaster response, including care for the displaced populations. Still, according to Schroeder, they are “highly unevenly developed” in terms of use and access to data, integration of that data into decision-making processes, use of climate data, and prediction and mobility modeling.

Though disparities exist in usage, Schroeder said the baseline has increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There was a lot of data brought online to deal with the pandemic,” Schroder said, noting hospital bed availability as an example.

Howard said CalOES is also implanting new products based on newly available data. He mentioned a new map layer with evacuation-related information from 30 counties that launched last year as one example. Such info is critical at the country level, as county officials and sheriffs decide when to evacuate and where to tell people to go.

Another group at CalOES, the Access and Function Needs Group, has been working on a new map highlighting resources available for vulnerable communities and patients. The state is also planning to launch a non-public situational awareness tool called Scout at the end of June, geared toward first responders to help them coordinate their work.

Similarly, data is being used to increase situational awareness in the nonprofit sector.

According to the Red Cross’s Denise Everhart, such info addresses a fundamental problem in emergency response situations.

“The first step in crisis management is understanding the situation, and that’s always our biggest challenge: to figure out what’s going on. Hard data is hard to get your hands on,” she said.

“The ability I see in this tool is to see areas of where people are evaluating and where they’re going,” she said, referring to the Google.org-funded GIS map.

“In Paradise, if we had that [elderly] data we probably could’ve been better prepared, and would have realized we needed more durable medical equipment,” she said.

Researchers aim to integrate additional data layers to map products based on new findings related to public health.

“Multiple studies show links with cardiovascular disease. We have also seen an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes among wildfire exposed populations,” said Joan Casey, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, in emailed responses to questions.

“Another key and understudied area is exposure to wildfire disasters and the amount of stress this places on human populations. I expect disaster exposure, where people’s homes burned, community members killed, or large displacement takes place, leads to many additional adverse health outcomes, above and beyond wildfire smoke exposure,” she said.

In concert with the products, Schroeder and his team at CrisisReady are also working to ensure they find their target audience.

“There has to be this concerted approach at this point of getting data into the right hands – people with local decision-making authority and who don’t have access to, or use of, data and who can actually make large gains if we can close that loop,” he said.

“That’s the purpose of this whole thing: where are those places where we’re going to make the most gains?” Schroeder said. “It’s not just mass casualty events, but thinking strategically about how we can make the healthcare system better,” he said.

On the ground, responders concur.

“The better data we get, the better we can make decisions and allocate resources,” said Everhart.

The post New Technology Aids Wildfire Response appeared first on Direct Relief.

The data science team at CrisisReady, a collaboration between Direct Relief and Harvard University School of Public Health, analyzed relationships between power outages and numbers of individuals in the Medicare program known to be users of electricity-dependent durable medical equipment (DME) to understand where medically vulnerable people might be most at risk due to winter power outages.

Areas with high rates of power outage correlated very closely with numbers of DME users, in part because the affected areas tended to be disproportionately rural and older. Direct Relief will be sharing this information with municipalities and emergency management personnel to inform local emergency responses.

Ohio

The state of Ohio experienced a continuous swathe of severe power outages throughout 20 counties across the south primarily along the border with West Virginia. In Hocking County, to the south of Columbus, over 55% of customers were without power as of Friday afternoon. The county has 451 electricity-dependent DME users, which accounts for 1.5% of the county’s population.

New York

Power outages were still being experienced in counties to the north of New York City on Friday afternoon. Ulster County still showed nearly 50% of users without power, and 1,386 DME users, just under 1% of the total population.

Pennsylvania

Counties just south of Pittsburgh were the areas hardest hit by power outages. Washington County on Friday still showed nearly 14% of households without power. Washington County has an exceptionally high number of DME users at 3,185 or 1.5% of the total population.

West Virginia

The most impacted area of West Virginia was located along the northern border with Ohio, including 10 counties that contain both high numbers of customers without power and high numbers of DME users. Hancock County for instance contains 685 DME users, which amounts to roughly 2.5% of the total population. As of Friday afternoon, over 25% of households in Hancock were still without power.

Tennessee

Counties surrounding the city of Memphis were especially hard hit by power outages. Fayette County to the east of Memphis still registered over 10% of households without power by Friday afternoon. Fayette is home to 327 DME users, just under 1% of the total population.

Texas

The most heavily affected areas of Texas lay to the northeast of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Hunt County still registered over 10% of households without power on Friday. Hunt County contains nearly 1000 DME users, over 1% of the total population.

The post For Medically Vulnerable, Winter Power Outages Across U.S. Increase Risk appeared first on Direct Relief.

People who use electricity-dependent durable medical equipment (DMEs), including wheelchairs, ventilators, insulin pumps, and other equipment, are at particular risk from power outages of varying durations. Devices which require continuous power may not be available, nor backed up to generators. Devices that require charging may become unavailable over time depending on the length of the outage.

Using data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s emPower program, which tracks durable medical equipment with power requirements for Medicare beneficiaries, and PowerOutages.us, which tracks outages at the county and city levels in real-time, the CrisisReady analytics team has identified six counties in Texas with relatively high numbers of electricity-dependent DME users which have been particularly affected by power outages.

Lamar, Delta and Fannin Counties in particular, along with the neighboring Hunt County, are part of a cluster of significant outages in northeastern Texas. In Lamar County in particular, with a population of just under 50,000 people, almost 2% of the entire population uses power-dependent medical devices. People in these areas are at higher risk for health complications during outage events.

Direct Relief and other members and supporters of the health care safety net will continue to monitor the exposure of medically vulnerable people to power outages throughout the ongoing winter storms.

The post Winter Storms Interrupt Power, Putting Medical Device Users at Risk appeared first on Direct Relief.