Track: Emergency Management and Public Safety
PFRA GIS Emergency Response to the 1997 Red River Flood
Troy RicheDuring the 1997 Red River flood, paper maps normally used to locate victims needing emergency evacuation became virtually useless. The murky floodwaters obliterated most navigational landmarks. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) staff employed a GIS to help the Canadian Coast Guard, Manitoba Natural Resources, the Armed Forces, and the Emergency Medical Services locate victims and provide accurate and timely navigational coordinates for emergency evacuation. Laptop computers loaded with existing PFRA databases, Esri's ArcView GIS Version 3.0 and several external data sets provided portable, real-time spatial information. A PFRA-developed quarter section point file was central to the PFRA emergency response system. Field staff used ArcView GIS to quickly convert victim-supplied legal land locations (quarter section, township and range, or river lot description) to geographic coordinates. The coordinates supplied to rescue crafts were accurate to within ten meters of actual position. ArcView GIS software's potential was recognized and subsequent ArcView GIS applications were developed including tracking emergency response crews and mapping the locations of nonevacuated residents, livestock, navigational obstructions, and the condition of the dikes. GIS will continue to be used in postflood damage evaluation and reconstruction.
Troy Riche
Agriculture Canada -- PFRA
603-1800 Hamilton Street
Regina, SASKATCHEWAN S4P 4L2
CANADA
Telephone: (306) 780-7101
Fax: (306) 780-8229
E-mail: pf10314@em.agr.ca