NOAA’s Hurricane Florence Imagery Shows Vivid Insight into Storm’s Affect on Carolina Coast By JOY CRIST

Damage assessment imagery in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence paints a vivid, street-by-street portrait of how communities all along the North and South Carolina coastlines were impacted by the storm. The tool, which is used by multiple organizations that respond to natural disasters, provides essential information on how coastal areas are affected by a storm on a daily basis, in order to determine the best response.

The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) collects the image data in specific areas identified by NOAA in coordination with FEMA and other state and federal partners, and the images are updated every 12 hours whenever possible.

A team of NOAA aviators and sensor operators capture the images using specialized remote-sensing cameras aboard NOAA’s King Air aircraft, which flies above the targeted area at an altitude between roughly 1,600 and 4,900 feet.

NOAA’s aerial imagery aids safe navigation and captures damage to coastal areas caused by a storm, and the aerial imagery is utilized to determine the extent of the damage inflicted by flooding, and to compare baseline coastal areas to assess the damage to major ports and waterways, coastlines, critical infrastructure, and coastal communities. Per NOAA, the imagery provides a cost-effective way to better understand the damage sustained to both property and the environment.

NOAA’s interactive damage map can be found at https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/florence/index.html.

NOAA Emergency Response Imagery collected on the following days can also be viewed via the website: