HurricanesMore capable hurricane decision support platform helps emergency managers

Published 14 June 2017

Hurricane Matthew was one of the first operational uses of DHS’s S&T HURREVAC-eXtended (HV-X) platform. The HV-X platform integrates forecast and planning data to provide emergency managers decision support tools for use in advance of and during tropical weather. Development began in 2013 and since then, S&T identified the need for a comprehensive hurricane decision platform that encompassed all phases of planning and evacuations. Collaborating with FEMA, S&T worked to streamline the currently available HURREVAC storm tracking and decision platform. The result of this collaboration is HV-X.

On 1 October 2016, Hurricane Matthew became the first category five storm in the Atlantic Ocean in nearly a decade when Hurricane Felix blew through with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour. As a result of Matthew, 47 Americans died. Damages in excess of 10 billion dollars made it the most expensive storm since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Matthew damaged homes and infrastructure from the Caribbean to the Canadian Maritimes. Domestic response to the hurricane included widespread evacuations. Extensive areas of the coast were evacuated because of predicted high wind speeds and flooding, especially in Jacksonville, Florida. One million Floridians lost power as the storm passed to the east, with more than 400,000 losing power in Georgia, North and South Carolina. Widespread torrential rains and flooding spread inland in the Carolinas and Virginia.

S&T notes that Hurricane Matthew was one of the first operational uses of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) HURREVAC-eXtended (HV-X) platform. The HV-X platform integrates forecast and planning data to provide emergency managers decision support tools for use in advance of and during tropical weather. Development began in 2013 and since then, S&T identified the need for a comprehensive hurricane decision platform that encompassed all phases of planning and evacuations. Collaborating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) via the National Hurricane Program (NHP) Technology Modernization initiative, DHS S&T worked to streamline the currently available HURREVAC storm tracking and decision platform. The result of this collaboration is HV-X.

“Timely access to accurate information for emergency managers can help improve a community’s response to a hurricane, potentially saving lives and resources community,” said S&T Program Manager Darren Wilson. “By improving visualization of weather data and information, an Emergency Manager can review the various data sources more efficiently, and HV-X gives emergency managers more tools and capabilities to support their recommendations and decision making.”